Blood biomarkers in acute brain injury disorders

Abstract

Acute brain injury disorders, such as mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and stroke, affect millions of people every year. Biomarkers have been suggested as decision tools to facilitate and optimize clinician's decision-making for diagnosis, treatment and prognosis in both diseases. In this project, proteomic methods were used to discover, verify and validate proteins as potential biomarkers. The results showed that H-FABP and IL-10 could be used to rapidly and safely discharge mTBI patients without a brain lesion and thereby avoid harmful CT-scans. In stroke, PRDX-1 was shown capable of helping clinicians to administer the best treatment by indicating the time of onset. The proteins VCAM and e-selectin could early identify stroke patients with poor outcome, permitting rapid and adapted care increasing patient's chances of good recovery. Taken together, these findings show that the use of biomarkers in different clinical applications could be clearly beneficial for mTBI and stroke patients care-taking