Brain Injury Biomarker Behavior in Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage

S100B and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) have been widely studied in diverse neurocritical pathologies, being recognized as the most promising biomarkers for brain injury assessment. However, their role in intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) has not been widely analyzed.

This was an observational prospective cohort study of patients with ICH admitted to a neurocritical care unit. Blood samples were collected on admission and at 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours. Patient outcomes were assessed at 6 months after the event.

Thirty-six patients with ICH were included in the study. The mortality rate was 36%. Nonsurvivors had higher S100B values than survivors at admission, 24 hours, and 48 hours (P < 0.05). Likewise, S100B levels were higher in patients with poor outcomes (modified Rankin Scale [mRS] score >4) compared with those with good outcome (mRS score ≤3) in the 24-hour, 48-hour, and 72-hour samples. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that S100B at admission, 24 hours, and 48 hours can discriminate between patients who survive and those who die as a consequence of ICH. The 48-hour sample (area under the ROC curve, 0.817; P = 0.003) reached the best values for sensitivity (75%) and specificity (80%); cutoff, 0.250 μg/L. For 6-month functional outcome, S100B protein could differentiate between groups at 24, 48, and 72 hours. The S100B 24-hour sample had the best values for sensitivity (82.6%) and specificity (72.7%), with a cutoff of 0.202 μg/L. We found no clear relationship between NSE values and clinical characteristics.

S100B protein acts as early predictor of mortality and functional outcome in patients with ICH. This biomarker measurement can provide additional information beyond clinical and radiologic findings to guide physicians in the management of these patients.