Objective: To investigate the value of serum C-reactive protein/prealbumin ratio (CRP/PA) in predicting the disease progression of adult patients with traumatic brain injury.
Methods: A prospective study was conducted. Patients with traumatic brain injury who were over 18 years old and were followed up for more than 72 hours admitted to the department of emergency of Huashan North Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University from May 2018 to December 2019 were enrolled. The levels of serum CRP, PA were measured immediately after injury and at 6, 24, 48 and 72 hours after injury, and the CRP/PA ratio was calculated. Glasgow coma score (GCS) was dynamically measured and head CT was reviewed regularly. If the GCS decreased by more than 3 and/or the intracranial injury was aggravated by CT scan within 72 hours after injury, the patients were included in the aggravating group. If there were no above changes, they were included in the stable group. The differences of each index between the two groups were compared, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn to evaluate the predictive value of each index at different time points on the patient's disease progress.
Results: A total of 106 patients were selected, including 89 patients in the stable group and 17 patients in the aggravating group, and the baseline data of the two groups were balanced. CRP, CRP/PA increased and PA decreased in brain trauma patients 6 hours after injury, and reached the peak value or valley value at 48 hours. Compared with the stable group, CRP/PA significantly increased at 24, 48 and 72 hours in the aggravating group [24 hours: 34.18 (20.19, 67.10) vs. 13.98 (4.36, 38.30), 48 hours: 71.10 (45.55, 96.97) vs. 16.02 (5.05, 41.76), 72 hours: 23.25 (4.46, 38.61) vs. 4.72 (2.38, 12.95), all P < 0.05]. ROC curve analysis showed that CRP/PA ratio at 24 hours and 48 hours after injury could be used as a predictor of disease progression. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 24 hours CRP/PA was 0.71, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) was 0.58-0.84, the cut-off value was 28.29, the sensitivity was 76.5%, and the specificity was 73.0%. The AUC of 48 hours CRP/PA was 0.76, 95%CI was 0.62-0.90, and the cut-off value was 37.18, the sensitivity was 88.2%, and the specificity was 70.8%.
Conclusions: The dynamic monitoring of CRP/PA ratio in adult after traumatic brain injury can evaluate the disease condition, and the CRP/PA ratio of 24 hours and 48 hours can predict the progress of the disease.