Initial CSF total tau correlates with 1-year outcome in patients with traumatic brain injury.
OBJECTIVE: We investigated if tau, microtubular binding protein, in serum and ventricular CSF (vCSF) in patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) during the initial posttraumatic days correlated to 1-year outcome. METHODS: Patients with severe TBI (n = 39, Glasgow Coma Scale score 2,126 pg/mL on days 2 to 3 discriminated between dead and alive (sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 81%). A vCSF total tau level of >702 pg/mL on days 2 to 3 discriminated between bad (GOSE 1 to 4) and good (GOSE 5 to 8) outcome (sensitivity of 83% and a specificity of 69%). Patients with GOSE 1 (dead) had higher vCSF total tau levels on days 2 to 3 (p < 0.001) vs both surviving patients (GOSE 2 to 8) and those with NPH. Total tau was not detected in serum throughout the study. CONCLUSION: The increase in ventricular CSF (vCSF) total tau probably reflects axonal damage, known to be a central pathologic mechanism in traumatic brain injury (TBI). These results suggest that vCSF total tau may be an important early biochemical neuromarker for predicting long-term outcome in patients with a severe TBI.