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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Controlled Cortical Impact Model for Traumatic Brain Injury
Published on: August 5, 2014
Relationship between the Arg72Pro polymorphism of p53 and outcome for patients with traumatic brain injury
Pascual Martínez-Lucas1, Jerónimo Moreno-Cuesta, Dolores C García-Olmo
1Department of Anaesthesia, General University Hospital, C/ Hermanos Falcó 37, 02006, Albacete, Spain.
Objective:
To determine the relationship between the Arg72Pro polymorphism of p53 and the outcome after traumatic brain injury (TBI) in humans.
Design And Setting:
A prospective study was carried out in a ten-bed surgical intensive care unit (SICU) of a university hospital.
Patients:
The study included 90 caucasian patients who had experienced a severe TBI within the previous 24 h. The exclusion criterion was a previous deficit in the central nervous system.
Measurements And Results:
The main recorded outcomes were values on the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) at discharge from the SICU (GOS-0) and 6 months later (GOS-6). A blood sample was taken from each patient and all samples were analyzed by an allele-specific polymerase chain reaction for detection of Arg72Pro polymorphism of p53. These polymorphisms were tested for their association with values of GOS-0 and GOS-6. A two-tailed value of p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. The frequency of the argine/argine (Arg/Arg) genotype was greater among the patients who had a bad outcome at GOS-0 (69 vs 31% in the bad-outcome group; p=0.029). A multiple logistic regression analysis showed that patients with the Arg/Arg variation had a 2.9-fold greater risk of having a bad outcome at discharge from the SICU (95% confidence interval, 1.05-8.31; p=0.039 ). There was no similar relationship with respect to GOS-6.
Conclusion:
The Arg/Arg genotype of the Arg72Pro polymorphism in p53 is associated with increased likelihood of a bad outcome at discharge from the SICU.
