The Association of Serum Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein Level, and Outcome of Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract

Currently, the initial evaluation of patients with traumatic brain injury depends on examining the Glasgow coma scale (GCS) and imaging. But both modalities have limitations. Several studies have focused on biomarkers in traumatic brain injury because biomarkers are easily measured. A biomarker often used to assess the outcome and severity of traumatic brain injury is serum glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). This study was aimed to find the association between serum GFAP levels with the outcome of traumatic brain injury. In 60 subjects with TBI recruited, serum, taken at hospital admission, was analyzed for GFAP. Data collected were the severity of injury based on the GCS. One month later, the outcome was assessed based on the Glasgow outcome scale (GOS). Besides GFAP, some variables that affect the outcome, such as age, pupillary reaction, therapy, hypotension, were also analyzed. There was a highly significant association between serum GFAP levels on admission with outcome one month after onset (p <0.001). Multivariable analysis showed that GFAP was the strongest in predicting unfavourable outcomes. The higher serum GFAP contribute to unfavourable outcomes of traumatic brain injury.