Significance of serum neuron-specific enolase in evaluating severity and short-term prognosis of patients with acute cerebral infarction
ZHU Jian1 CAI Jian2 YANG Jin1 ZHAO Pei1 ZHU Desheng2
1.Department of Neurology, Baoshan Branch, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200444, China;
2.Department of Neurology, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200127, China
Abstract:Objective To investigate the significance of serum neuron-specific enolase (NSE) in evaluating the severity and short-term prognosis of acute cerebral infarction patients. Methods A total of 126 patients diagnosed with acute cerebral infarction in the Department of Neurology, Baoshan Branch, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (hereinafter referred to as “our hospital”) from January 2019 to April 2020 were selected as the acute cerebral infarction group, and 55 physical healthy subjects in our hospital during the same period were selected as the control group. The clinical data of acute cerebral infarction group and control group were compared. The acute cerebral infarction group was classified as mild (46 cases), medium (47 cases), and severe (33 cases) according to the score of the National Institutes of Health stroke scale (NIHSS). Then, according to the degree of neurological impairment at discharge, the patients were divided into significant improvement (41 cases), improvement (40 cases), and no change (45 cases). The difference of serum NSE level in patients with different severity and short-term prognosis was compared, and the correlation between NSE level and the score of NIHSS, the neurological deficit in acute cerebral infarction group was analyzed. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), optimal critical value, sensitivity, and specificity of NSE in determining the severity and short-term prognosis of patients with acute cerebral infarction were evaluated. Results The level of NSE in acute cerebral infarction group was higher than that in control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The level of NSE in mild, moderate, and severe patients was increased gradually, and the level of NSE in patients with significant improvement, improvement, and no change was increased gradually, the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). The level of NSE in acute cerebral infarction group was positively correlated with NIHSS score (r>0, P<0.05), and negatively correlated with the score of neurological deficit (r<0, P<0.05). Serum NSE level had a certain value in predicting the severity and short-term prognosis of patients with acute cerebral infarction (AUC>0.5, P<0.5). Conclusion Serum NSE level is valuable for evaluating the severity of central nervous system injury and short-term clinical prognosis of patients with acute cerebral infarction, and can be used as a reliable biomarker for evaluating the severity of acute cerebral infarction and short-term clinical prognosis.