• Yu H Zhong, Bi E Zheng, Ren H He, Zhou Zhou, Sheng Q Zhang, Yi Wei, and Jian Z Fan.
• Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, 1838 Guangzhou North Road, Guangzhou, 510515, Guangdong Province, China. zhongbinyue@163.com.
• Neurocrit Care. 2021 Apr 1; 34 (2): 465-472.

BackgroundIt is well known that lipids are vital for axonal myelin repair. Diffuse axonal injury (DAI) is characterized by widespread axonal injury. The association between serum lipids and DAI is not well known. The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations of serum lipid profile variables (triglycerides, high- and low-density lipoproteins, and total cholesterol) with DAI detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and with clinical outcome for patients suffering from traumatic brain injury (TBI).MethodsThis study included 176 patients with a history of TBI who had undergone initial serum lipid measurements within 1 week and brain MRIs within 30 days. Based on MRI findings, patients were divided into negative and positive DAI groups.ResultsOf the 176 patients, 70 (39.8%) were assigned to DAI group and 106 (60.2%) patients to non-DAI group. Compared with the non-DAI group, patients with DAI had significantly lower levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) in serum during the first week following TBI. Multivariate analysis identified HDL-C as an independent predictor of DAI. Patients with lower serum HDL-C levels were less likely to regain consciousness within 6 months in TBI patients with DAI lesions identified by MRI.ConclusionsPlasma levels of HDL-C may be a viable addition to biomarker panels for predicting the presence and prognosis of DAI on subsequent MRI following TBI.

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