Study: Blood test could provide alternative to CT to diagnose TBI
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Patients with traumatic brain injuries were shown to have significantly higher levels of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) than patients without such injuries, marking a promising step in the development of a blood test that could reduce the number of CT scans administered to the 1.4 million people treated annually for traumatic brain injury in U.S. emergency departments.
"This test has the potential for determining injury severity soon after injury, helping emergency physicians make decisions about performing CT scans, seeking neurological consultations and transferring patients to other facilities," Linda Papa, MDCM, MSc, of the department of emergency medicine at Orlando Regional Medical Center in Orlando, Fla., said in a statement. "We can perform blood tests now for heart attack, and hope to be able to do the same for traumatic brain injury.”
The researchers performed a prospective cohort study of 307 adult patients, 108 of whom were patients with traumatic brain injury and 199 of whom were control subjects who were either uninjured or presented with injuries other than traumatic brain injury. Patients with head trauma had Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scores between 9 and 15, with symptoms such as loss of consciousness, amnesia or disorientation.
Blood samples were obtained within four hours of injury.
Significant differences in the levels of GFAP were detected between patients with traumatic brain injuries and control patients. Receiver operating characteristic curves demonstrated early GFAP levels could distinguish patients with traumatic brain injury from controls with an area under the curve of 0.90, while the area under the curve for discriminating patients with CT lesions from those without was 0.79.
“GFAP [breakdown product] is detectable in serum within an hour of injury and is associated with measures of injury severity, including the GCS score, CT lesions and neurosurgical intervention,” wrote the authors.
According to the study’s background information, GFAP breakdown products are released from injured glia cells and likely the result of calpain overactivation following traumatic brain injury.
Papa said the GFAP blood test has greater specificity than other blood tests studied for their predictive value in traumatic brain injury, but said it won’t totally replace imaging.
“It is not a substitute for all CT scans, but it could possibly rule out patients who do not need them, as well as ensure that patients at risk get CT scans they need," said Papa.
The researchers said further study is necessary before recommending clinical application of a GFAP blood test.
Evan Godt, Writer
Evan joined TriMed in 2011, writing primarily for Health Imaging. Prior to diving into medical journalism, Evan worked for the Nine Network of Public Media in St. Louis. He also has worked in public relations and education. Evan studied journalism at the University of Missouri, with an emphasis on broadcast media.