Prognosticating the clinical outcome of neurological diseases is essential to guide treatment and facilitate decision-making. It usually depends on clinical and radiological findings. Biomarkers have been suggested to support this process, as they are deemed objective measures and can express the extent of tissue damage or reflect the degree of inflammation. Some of them are specific, and some are not. Few of them, however, reached the stage of daily application in clinical practice. This mini review covers available applications of the S100B protein in prognosticating clinical outcome in patients with various neurological disorders, particularly in those with traumatic brain injury, spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage and ischemic stroke. The aim is to provide an understandable picture of the clinical use of the S100B protein and give a brief overview of the current limitations that require future solutions.

There is a lack of information regarding electrical properties of white matter and brain tumors. To investigate the feasibility of in-vivo measurement of electrical resistivity during brain surgery and establish a better understanding of the resistivity patterns of brain tumors in correlation to the white matter. A bipolar probe was used to measure electrical resistivity during surgery in a prospective cohort of patients with brain tumors. For impedance measurement, the probe applied a constant current of 0.7 μA with a frequency of 140 Hz. The measurement was performed in the white matter within and outside peritumoral edema as well as in non-enhancing, enhancing and necrotic tumor areas. Resistivity values expressed in ohmmeter (Ω∗m) were compared between different intracranial tissues and brain tumors. Ninety-two patients (gliomas WHO II:16, WHO III:10, WHO IV:33, metastasis:33) were included. White matter outside peritumoral edema had higher resistivity values (13.3 ± 1.7 Ω∗m) than within peritumoral edema (8.5 ± 1.6 Ω∗m), and both had higher values than brain tumors including non-enhancing (WHO II:6.4 ± 1.3 Ω∗m, WHO III:6.3 ± 0.9 Ω∗m), enhancing (WHO IV:5 ± 1 Ω∗m, metastasis:5.4 ± 1.3 Ω∗m) and necrotic tumor areas (WHO IV:3.9 ± 1.1 Ω∗m, metastasis:4.3 ± 1.3 Ω∗m), p=<0.001. No difference was found between low-grade and anaplastic gliomas, p = 0.808, while resistivity values in both were higher than the highest values found in glioblastomas, p = 0.003 and p = 0.004, respectively. The technique we applied enabled us to measure electrical resistivity of white matter and brain tumors in-vivo presumably with a significant effect with regard to dielectric polarization. Our results suggest that there are significant differences within different areas and subtypes of brain tumors and that white matter exhibits higher electrical resistivity than brain tumors.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare sensitivity and specificity between the novel threshold and amplitude criteria for motor evoked potentials (MEPs) monitoring after transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) during surgery for supratentorial lesions in the same patient cohort.METHODS: One hundred twenty-six patients were included. All procedures were performed under general anesthesia. Craniotomies did not expose motor cortex, so that direct mapping was less suitable. After TES, MEPs were recorded bilaterally from abductor pollicis brevis (APB), from orbicularis oris (OO), and/or from tibialis anterior (TA). The percentage increase in the threshold level was assessed and considered significant if it exceeded by more than 20% on the affected side the percentage increase on the unaffected side. Amplitude on the affected side was measured with a stimulus intensity of 150% of the threshold level set for each muscle.RESULTS: Eighteen of 126 patients showed a significant change in the threshold level as well as an amplitude reduction of more than 50% in MEPs recorded from APB, and 15 of the patients had postoperative deterioration of motor function of the arm (temporary in 8 cases and permanent in 7 [true-positive and false-negative results]). Recording from TA was performed in 66 patients; 4 developed postoperative deterioration of motor function of the leg (temporary in 3 cases and permanent in 1), and showed a significant change in the threshold level, and an amplitude reduction of more than 50% occurred in 1 patient. An amplitude reduction of more than 50% occurred in another 10 patients, without a significant change in the threshold level or postoperative deterioration. Recording from OO was performed in 61 patients; 3 developed postoperative deterioration of motor function of facial muscles (temporary in 2 cases and permanent in 1) and had a significant change in the threshold level, and 2 of the patients had an amplitude reduction of more than 50%. Another 6 patients had an amplitude reduction of more than 50% but no significant change in the threshold level or postoperative deterioration.Sensitivity of the threshold criterion was 100% when MEPs were recorded from APB, OO, or TA, and its specificity was 97%, 100%, and 100%, respectively. Sensitivity of the amplitude criterion was 100%, 67%, and 25%, with a specificity of 97%, 90%, and 84%, respectively.CONCLUSIONS: The threshold criterion was comparable to the amplitude criterion with a stimulus intensity set at 150% of the threshold level regarding sensitivity and specificity when recording MEPs from APB, and superior to it when recording from TA or OO.