Clinical evaluation in measuring astroprotein in cerebrospinal fluid in patients with head injuries (author's transl)

Abstract

Mori et al. (1970) found an astrocyte-specific cerebroprotein and designated it as astroprotein. They also established the radioimmunoassay method for measuring astroprotein in CSF and reported that this technique might be applicable as a screening test for glioma. At the same time there is an possibility that astroprotein in CSF may increase following cerebral tissue damage, because fibrillary astrocytes which contain astroprotein also exist in normal brain tissue. The purpose of the present study is to detect astroprotein in CSF by radioimmunoassay, attempting to clarify the diagnostic value of astroprotein for cerebral tissue damages. The CSF samples from 100 patients with head injuries as well as other non-tumor diseases had been examined and the following results were obtained: 1) Astroprotein in CSF from the patients without organic cerebral tissue damages (such as cervical spondylosis, Meniere's disease, neurosis and so on) and with cerebral concussion was found generally under 30 ng/ml. 2) Remarkably high amounts of astroprotein were detected in patients with cerebral contusion, cerebral hemorrhage and acute subdural hematoma. 3) Serial measurement of astroprotein in CSF showed it reached to the maximum value within several hours after cerebral tissue damages and then gradually decreased to the control value within 7 ?? 14 days. From these results, it might be concluded that measurement of astroprotein in CSF is clinically valuable not only for making the diagnosis of the cerebral tissue damages, but also for evaluating the grade of brain tissue injuries and prognosis.