抄録
Astroprotein has been measured by radioimmunoassay and it is known to increase remarkably in the cerebrospinal fluid and tumorous cystic fluid of patients with gliomas. For this reason, it was strongly suggested that the measurement of astroprotein in CSF might be helpful as a screening test for glioma detection. However, astroprotein was detected not only in astrocytoma cells, but also in fibrillary astrocytes in the normal brain. Therefore, astroprotein in CSF might be expected to have high value if fibrillary astrocytes in the normal brain were damaged.
Astroprotein levels of CSF in severe head injuries, complicated cerebral contusions, traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhages and acute subdural hematomas were also detected to be significantly high. On the other hand, in mild head traumas, complicated cerebral concussions, epidural hematomas and chronic subdural hematomas, astroprotein levels were in normal ranges. Therefore, astroprotein levels in CSF might indicate the degree of severity of damage to the brain parenchyma. The purpose of this study is to investigate the correlations between astroprotein levels and the severity of head injury.
Changes in CSF astroprotein titer were studied after experimental brain injury. Standard cold lesions of different severities were produced in dogs by the application of dry ice on the dura. 2 % Evans blue was given to examine the extent of the lesion and the dogs were sacrificed 24 hours after injury. In cases in which the lesion was limited to the cortex, astroprotein was detected to be below 30ng/ml during 24 hours of observation. In contrast, in cases in which the lesion had extended to the white matter, astroprotein titers exceeded 200 ng/ml 24 hours after the injury. It was confirmed that the degree of astroprotein release into the cerebrospinal fluid increased in parallel to the severity of brain damage.
