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New approach in cervical spine compression

Andrei Stefan Iencean, Alexandru Tascu, Stefan Mircea Iencean

Cervical spine compression with cervical radicular or cervical spinal cord compression is a common neck condition caused by inflammatory diseases, cervical disk degeneration, neck injuries or other less common causes (tumours, infections etc.). The phosphorylated form of the High-Molecular-Weight Neurofilament Subunit NF-H (pNF-H) in Cerebro-Spinal Fluid (CSF) is a specific biomarker for spinal cord lesion. The current study included 5 subjects with acute traumatic cervical spinal cord injury; the patients were classified according to the American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (ASIA) and all patients underwent surgery during the first 24 hours post injury (decompression, stabilization). We measured daily the heavy Phosphorylated Neurofilament Subunit (pNF-H) concentration by sandwich ELISA test in CSF in all patients and we compared the values of pNF-H with the patients’ clinical evolution. The evolution of the daily values in the levels of CSF pNF-H showed three patterns of this biomarker in the cervical spinal cord compression. This new approach in cervical spine compression is based on pNF-H; the heavy phosphorylated neurofilament subunit concentration can be a predictive lesional biomarker because the pattern in its values can show the reduction or stoppage of the secondary lesion with a favourable result.