Total antioxidant capacity is associated with mortality of patients with severe traumatic brain injury

Previously, circulating total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients has been scarcely studied and only in studies of small sample size (lower than 55 TBI patients). In one study were found higher serum TAC in non-survivor than in survivor TBI patients; however, an association between circulating TAC and mortality in patients with TBI has not been previously reported. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine whether there is an association between circulating TAC, peroxidation state and mortality in patients with severe TBI.

This was a multicenter, observational and prospective study was carried out in six Spanish Intensive Care Units. We included patients with severe TBI defined as Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) lower than 9. We excluded patients with Injury Severity Score (ISS) in non-cranial aspects higher than 9. We measured serum TAC on day 1 of TBI. The 30-day mortality was established as endpoint.

Non-surviving TBI patients (N = 27) showed higher serum TAC (P < 0.001) than survivor ones (N = 73). Logistic regression analyses showed that serum TAC higher than 2.59 nmol/mL were associated with 30-day mortality controlling for APACHE-II and CT classification (OR = 4.40; 95% CI = 1.14-16.98; P = 0.03), controlling for GCS and age (OR = 5.88; 95% CI = 1.57-22.06; P = 0.009), and controlling for CT classification and admission abnormal pupils (OR = 3.89; 95% CI = 1.30-11.61; P = 0.02). There was an association between serum TAC and malondialdehyde (a biomarker of lipid peroxidation) levels (rho = 0.25; p = 0.01), APACHE-II score (rho = 0.23; p = 0.03) and GCS (rho = -0.21; p = 0.04).

To our knowledge, our series is the largest reporting data on circulating TAC in patients with severe TBI. The most relevant and new findings of our study were that there is an association between circulating TAC and peroxidation state and mortality in patients with severe TBI.