Dynamic monitoring of changes of thrombomodulin and von Willebrand factor in patients with severe brain injury / 中华创伤杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the changes of thrombomodulin (TM) and von Willebrand factor (vWf) and their clinical significance in patients with severe brain injury. Methods The study involved 62 patients with severe brain injury who were divided into diffuse axonal injury group (28 patients) and focal brain injury group (34 patients). Then, the 62 patients were divided into young group (16-30 years old, 20 patients), middle-aged group (31-65 years old, 20 patients) and elderly group ( ＞65 years old, 22 patients). The serum levels of TM and vWf were determined at days 1 and 7 after injury respectively. ELISA method was employed to determine the serum levels of TM and vWf.Results The vWf in focal brain injury group was significantly higher than that of diffuse axonal injury group at days 1-7 after injury ( P ＜ 0.05 ). Compared with the young and middle-aged groups, the TM and vWf levels in the elderly group at day 1 after injury were significantly elevated ( P ＜ 0. 05 ). The TM levels in patients with delayed traumatic intracerebral hematoma (DTICH) were significantly higher than that in patients without DTICH (P ＜ 0. 05). Conclusions In the acute stage of severe brain injury,injury severity and activation of endothelial cells varies in patients with different types of injury and at different ages. TM is one of sensitive indicators to reflect the cerebal vascular endothelial cell injury. It is very meaningful to assess the prognosis of severe brain injury by measuring serum levels of TM and vWf and take TM as a predictive indicator for DTICH.