1Division of Neurosciences Critical Care and Cardiac Surgery, Departments of Neurology, Surgery, Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
2Division of Neurocritical Care, Department of Neurosurgery, McGovern School of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX, USA
3Griffith University School of Medicine, Queensland, Australia
4Critical Care Research Group, The Prince Charles Hospital, Queensland, Australia
Copyright © 2023 The Korean Society of Critical Care Medicine
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.
FUNDING
SMC was supported by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (1K23HL157610). AMG was supported by National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (5K23NS121628).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
None.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
Conceptualization: SK, SMC. Funding acquisition: SMC. Writing–original draft: all authors. Writing–review & editing: all authors.
ECMO: extracorporeal membrane oxygenation; ABI: acute brain injury; CNS: central nervous system, GCS: Glasgow Coma Scale; TBI: traumatic brain injury; AIS: acute ischemic stroke; GFAP: glial fibrillary acidic protein; NfL: neurofilament light chain; CT: computed tomography; NSE: neuron-specific enolase; mt-DNA: mitochondrial DNA; miRNA: micro-RNA; ARDS: acute respiratory distress syndrome; CfDNA: cell-free DNA; OSM: Oncostatin M; IL: interleukin; VV: venovenous.
Serum biomarker | Physiology | Peak post-ABI and first elevation time | Previous use | Limitation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Tau | Cytoskeleton stabilization in unmyelinated axons in CNS | 168 hr peak, elevation post 6 hr | Prediction of GCS following TBI, correlation with AIS severity | Studies examining utility in adult ECMO limited by sample size |
GFAP | Astrocyte cytoskeletal integrity and astrogliosis | 48–72 hr peak, increase after up to 2 hours | GFAP increased in pediatric ECMO patients who experienced brain injury. | Studies examining utility in adult ECMO limited by sample size |
NfL | Axonal cytoskeleton component | Condition-dependent peak, increase in several hours after ABI | NfL increased after hypoxic brain injury in cardiac arrest, predictor of abnormal head CT in TBI. | Studies examining utility in adult ECMO limited by sample size |
NSE | Paracrine regulator of glia and neurons expressed in astrocytes and oligodendrocytes | 48 hr peak, increase in several hours | NSE is predictive of mortality and poor neurological outcomes in TBI. | Levels can be falsely elevated by the presence of hemolysis. |
mt-DNA | Released upon cellular injury, promoting an inflammatory response | Within 6 hr, uncertain peak, but increase still present after 48 hr | Increased mt-DNA copy number in patients following both focal and diffuse TBI | No prior studies examining utility in ECMO |
miRNA | Regulate cellular pathways, including those involved in neuronal repair | Peak 2–7 days after TBI | Specially selected miRNA profiles correlate with severity of ARDS in ECMO patients | No prior studies examining neurological injury prediction in ECMO |
CfDNA | Double stranded DNA fragments released into the bloodstream during cellular apoptosis or necrosis | High inter-patient variability, 2 hr to 1 wk peak time | CfDNA levels have been shown to correlate with severity of TBI. | No prior studies examining neurological injury prediction in ECMO |
Inflammatory cytokines | Small, secreted molecules controlling cell-cell interaction in the setting of inflammation regulation | Variable by cytokine | Elevations in pediatric ECMO population in those with head injury, elevations in adults associated with poor ECMO survival | No prior studies on neurological injury prediction in adult ECMO population |
OSM | inflammatory cytokine in the IL-6 family that is expressed in neurons, astrocytes, glia, and immune cells | Biphasic peak | Elevated OSM associated with poor survival after VV-ECMO | Conflicting evidence: elevation associated with poor survival in VV-ECMO, improved recovery in murine model |
Lipidomics/metabolomics | Cellular injury results in derangements in processes such as oxidative phosphorylation | Variable by lipid/carbohydrate derivative | Lipidome panels achieved 85% accuracy at differentiating rats having undergone TBI from control rats. | No previous studies in ECMO |
ECMO: extracorporeal membrane oxygenation; ABI: acute brain injury; CNS: central nervous system, GCS: Glasgow Coma Scale; TBI: traumatic brain injury; AIS: acute ischemic stroke; GFAP: glial fibrillary acidic protein; NfL: neurofilament light chain; CT: computed tomography; NSE: neuron-specific enolase; mt-DNA: mitochondrial DNA; miRNA: micro-RNA; ARDS: acute respiratory distress syndrome; CfDNA: cell-free DNA; OSM: Oncostatin M; IL: interleukin; VV: venovenous.