Intracranial Hemorrhage in Elderly Patients with Mild Head Injury

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A prospective observational study in adult and elderly patients receiving antiplatelet therapy who presented with mild head injury (MHI) at two trauma hospitals in Vienna, Austria, was recently conducted to see if blood serum levels of S100B protein could help identify whether their injuries included intracranial bleeding. The protein, called S100B, is released into the blood stream by astrocytes in the brain when brain injury occurs. During the study, researchers investigated as to whether a specific threshold level of S100B would indicate the absence of intracranial hemorrhage and found that a serum-level lower than 0.105 µg/L was an accurate predictor that no intracranial hemorrhage was present. The authors of the study discovered this by examining patients who presented to their hospitals with an MHI diagnosis, who were 65 years or older, or were 18 years of age or older and receiving antiplatelet therapy. Because the SB100 molecule has a half-life of approximately 90 minutes, only patients in whom blood samples were drawn within three-hours after injury were included in the study. Serum levels of SB100 were recorded and a cutoff of 0.105 µg/L was set for a comparison of patients. The researchers hope that their findings will reduce the number of CCT studies and hospitalizations in these two patient groups. They believe that in conjunction with clinical decision making, an assessment of serum S100 levels will help point to which specific patients with MHI should be further evaluated and which patients may return home to recuperate. To read more about this study, click here.

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