Abstract: Objective To explore influences of the level and dynamic changes of neuron-specific enolase (NSE) in serum on the early diagnosis, classification, condition change and prognosis assessment of traumatic brain injuries (TBI) patients. Methods A total of 106 TBI patients admitted to a hospital in Yanqing District of Beijing were divided into mild, moderate, and severe groups, according to Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) at admission. Based on the injury types diagnosed by CT, the patients were divided into subdural, epidural hematoma, subarachnoid hemorrhage group (hematoma hemorrhage group for short), brain contusion and laceration group, diffuse axonal injury group, and no obvious abnormalities group. After 3 months of follow-up, the patients were divided into poor prognosis group and good prognosis group according to Glasgow Outcome Score (GOS). Totally 100 healthy patients were selected as the control group. The serum NSE levels of experimental groups and control group were detected on day 1, 3 and 5, and the differences of serum NSE levels among all groups were compared and the correlation analysis was conducted. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was prepared to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of serum NSE level as the prognostic criteria of patients. Results The level of serum NSE in TBI group was significantly higher than that in healthy control group, and the level of serum NSE in mild group was lower than that in moderate and severe groups. The dynamic level of serum NSE in mild and moderate groups showed a downward trend, while that in severe group was increased first and then maintained a high level. Among the injury groups diagnosed by CT, the level of serum NSE in the patients with diffuse axonal injury was significantly higher than that in the other groups. The serum NSE level was negatively correlated with GCS and GOS scores of the TBI patients at admission. The ROC curve evaluation showed that the serum NSE level had significant predictive value for the prognosis of the TBI patients 3 months after injury. Conclusion As an objective and reliable biomarker to judge the degree of craniocerebral injury, the serum NSE level has certain clinical application value in the diagnosis and classification of traumatic brain injury, disease progression and prognosis evaluation.

Key words: traumatic brain injuries, craniocerebral injury, neuron specific enolase, parting, prognosis