RESEARCH ARTICLE Serum Total Cholinesterase Activity on Admission Is Associated with Disease Severity and Outcome in Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury

Background Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the leading causes of neurological disability. In this ret-rospective study, serum total cholinesterase (ChE) activities were analyzed in 188 patients for diagnostic as well as predictive values for mortality. Methods and Findings Within 72 hours after injury, serum ChE activities including both acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase were measured. Disease severity was evaluated with Acute Physiol-ogy and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score, Glasgow Coma Score, length of coma, post-traumatic amnesia and injury feature. Neurocognitive and functional scores were assessed using clinical records. Of 188 patients, 146 (77.7%) survived and 42 (22.3%) died within 90 days. Lower ChE activities were noted in the non-survivors vs. survi-vors (5.94±2.19 vs. 7.04±2.16 kU/L, p=0.023), in septic vs. non-infected patients (5.93±1.89 vs. 7.31±2.45 kU/L, p=0.0005) and in patients with extremely severe injury vs. mild injury (6.3±1.98 vs. 7.57±2.48 kU/L, p=0.049). The trajectories of serum ChE levels were also dif