Neuropsychiatric sequelae of acute carbon monoxide poisoning: The predictive role of neuron specific enolase and glial fibrillary acidic protein

Abstract

Background: Acute carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning is one of the most common poisons worldwide and neuropsychiatric sequelae (NS) are the most frequent form of its morbidity.

Objectives: This study aimed to measure the percentage of patients liable to NS, to evaluate the cognitive profile of patients with NS and to assess the role of neuron specific enolase (NSE) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in predicting the development of NS after acute CO poisoning.

Methods: This prospective study included 50 patients with acute CO poisoning presented to the Poison Control Center, Ain Shams University Hospitals during the period from beginning of November 2015 till the end of January 2017. Patients' demographic characteristics, clinical manifestations and blood carboxyhemoglobin levels were recorded. Serum levels of NSE and GFAP were determined on admission. Every patient was invited to participate in a follow-up visit at a dedicated outpatient clinic one month after CO exposure. During the visit, a complete neurological examination, as well as a psychiatric evaluation using the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders version 4 Axis-I were performed for detection of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Wechsler memory scale test was administrated for detection of cognitive deficits. The patients were divided into two groups based on the presence or absence of NS.

Results: Cognitive impairment was found in 38 % of patients in the NS group. The serum levels of NSE and GFAP were significantly high in the NS group in comparison to the non-NS group. Receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) determined the cut-off level of NSE at 39 ng/mL achieved 100 % sensitivity with 88.64 % specificity to predict the development of NS after acute CO poisoning while GFAP had 95.24 % sensitivity and 69.23 % specificity at a cut-off value of 2.8 ng/mL.

Conclusion: NSE and GFAP could be useful in the early identification of patients at risk of developing NS after CO poisoning helping in treatment plans and thus improving quality of care.

Keywords: Carbon monoxide poisoning; Glial fibrillary acidic protein; Neuron-specific enolase; Neuropsychiatric sequelae.