Summary
Introduction: Traumatic brain injury is a growing cause of disability worldwide and classical diagnostic methods do not ensure early recognition and treatment of this pathology. In order to improve diagnostics and avoid redundant laboratory and radiological tests, the application of new sensitive, specific and cost-effective methods in clinical practice is needed. In 2018, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved new biomarkers for mild to moderate traumatic brain injury: astroglial cell fibrillary acidic protein and neuronal ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1, whose concentrations can be measured in human blood samples or cerebrospinal fluid.
Objective: to review the neuropathophysiological mechanisms of traumatic brain injury, it’s diagnostic methods and their alternative - new laboratory biomarkers GFAP and UCH-L1.
Material and methods: literature review was performed in PubMed, Cochrane Library, Medline and Google Scholar databases.
Conclusions: Novel biomarkers of traumatic brain injury assessed in human blood samples GFAP and UCH-L1 are specific for brain tissue cells, detectable as early as 1 hour after head injury and helpful predicting findings of instrumental imaging studies such as head computed tomography. Obtaining results this quickly, compared to radiological methods, can improve and accelerate clinical decision-making. GFAP and UCH-L1 are specific and promising laboratory biomarkers of traumatic brain injury that expand current diagnostic capabilities, shorten the time from patient admission to clinical decision-making and reduce health costs.
