RESUMEN
Background Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a common cause of death and disability, worldwide. Early recognition of patients with brain cellular damage allows for early rehabilitation and patient outcome improvement. Serum protein S-100B determinations have been widely suggested the most promising biomarker for TBI. It has been proposed that this marker is useful in a Neurointensive Care Unit (NICU) as a monitoring parameter. The main objective of this study is to assess the value of including acute S100B levels in standard clinical data as an early screening tool for brain death after severe TBI. Material and methods In this prospective study, the clinical conditions of patients with mild to moderate TBI were assessed and patient serum S100B levels measured within 24h of injury were eligible for inclusion in the study using by electro chemi luminescence (ECL). Patients were admitted to The Govt. Trauma Centre, P.B.M. Hospital, Bikaner in NICU and followed up one month later and evaluated for level of consciousness, presence or absence of post-traumatic headache, and daily activity performance (using the Barthel scale). Student's t-test and the chi-square test were used for the data analysis, which was performed using SPSS software. Result and discussion The mean serum S100B value was significantly lower for patients with minor TBI than for patients with moderate TBI (20.4 ± 12.6 ng/dl and 124.0 ± 235.0 ng/dl, respectively). Patients with normal CT scans also had statistically significantly lower serum S100B levels than patients with abnormal CT findings. The mean S100B value was statistically significantly higher for patients with suspected diffused axonal injury (596.18 ± 502.1 ng/dl) than for patients with other abnormal CT findings (p=0.000): 20.97 ± 19.9 ng/dl in patients with normal CT results; 39.56 ± 21.7 ng/dl in patients with skull bone fracture; 50.38 ± 22.9 ng/dl in patients with intracranial haemorrhage; and 70.23 ± 31.3 ng/dl in patients with fracture plus intracranial haemorrhage. Conclusion Serum S100B levels increase in patients with minor to moderate TBIs, especially in those with diffused axonal injury. However, serum S100B values cannot accurately predict one-month neuropsychological outcomes and performance.
RESUMEN
Molecular markers are the most powerful genomic tools to increase the efficiency and precision of breeding practices for crop improvement. Progress in the development of genomic resources in the leading legume crops of the semi-arid tropics (SAT), namely, chickpea (Cicer arietinum), pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) and groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), as compared to other crop species like cereals, has been very slow. With the advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) and high-throughput (HTP) genotyping methods, there is a shift in development of genomic resources including molecular markers in these crops. For instance, 2,000 to 3,000 novel simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers have been developed each for chickpea, pigeonpea and groundnut. Based on Sanger, 454/FLX and Illumina transcript reads, transcriptome assemblies have been developed for chickpea (44,845 transcript assembly contigs, or TACs) and pigeonpea (21,434 TACs). Illumina sequencing of some parental genotypes of mapping populations has resulted in the development of 120 million reads for chickpea and 128.9 million reads for pigeonpea. Alignment of these Illumina reads with respective transcriptome assemblies have provided >10,000 SNPs each in chickpea and pigeonpea. A variety of SNP genotyping platforms including GoldenGate, VeraCode and Competitive Allele Specific PCR (KASPar) assays have been developed in chickpea and pigeonpea. By using above resources, the first-generation or comprehensive genetic maps have been developed in the three legume speciesmentioned above. Analysis of phenotyping data together with genotyping data has provided candidate markers for drought-tolerance-related root traits in chickpea, resistance to foliar diseases in groundnut and sterility mosaic disease (SMD) and fertility restoration in pigeonpea. Together with these traitassociated markers along with those already available, molecular breeding programmes have been initiated for enhancing drought tolerance, resistance to fusarium wilt and ascochyta blight in chickpea and resistance to foliar diseases in groundnut. These trait-associated robust markers along with other genomic resources including genetic maps and genomic resources will certainly accelerate crop improvement programmes in the SAT legumes.