Assessment of neurone-specific enolase, glial fibrillary acidic protein and S100B as spinal cord ischemia biomarkers in patients undergoing open and endovascular complex aortic surgery- a single-center experience

Abstract Objectives Despite all efforts, spinal cord ischemia (SCI) is a relevant and feared complication following open and endovascular thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair. Besides the established correlation of motor evoked potentials and SCI, the usage of biomarkers for early detection of SCI intra- and postoperatively after TAAA surgery is scarcely described in literature. Methods Retrospective assessment of 33 patients (48.48% male) undergoing open and endovascular TAAA repair between January 2017 and January 2018. Levels of the biomarkers neurone-specific enolase (NSE), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and S100B were correlated with a decrease of the amplitude of the MEP's of more than 50 %, indicating a spinal cord ischemia. Linear mixed models were applied to test for differences in the biomarker levels between open and endovascular surgery and between different times of measurement. Post-hoc analyses were performed using Tukey’s multiple comparisons test. Logistic regression models were used to investigate the association between GFAP, NSE and S100B levels at different times and a significant decrease in MEP or in-hospital mortality. Results Altogether 19 patients were treated by endovascular repair, 14 by open repair, 5 patients were treated because of a type I TAAA, 7 received treatment because of a type II TAAA, 7, 10 and 4 patients received type III, IV or V TAAA repair respectively. In-hospital mortality was 18.18% (n = 6), five of these patients were treated because of symptomatic TAAA. MEP-decrease could be observed in 18 cases (54.5%), with 16 (48.4%) recovering during the intervention. Spinal cord ischemia could be observed in 9.09% (n = 3), two endovascular repairs leading to paraplegia, one open repair leading to paraparesis. All biomarkers showed increasing levels over time with no statistically significant difference between open and endovascular repair. The difference in NSE and S100B levels between the different times of measurements was statistically significant (p In a univariable logistic regression analysis, no correlation with the endpoints “significant decrease in MEP” or “In-hospital mortality” was observed for any of the assessed biomarkers. Conclusion Spinal cord ischemia-related biomarkers, namely NSE and S100B, show a relevant increase directly after open and endovascular TAAA surgery, while no clear association between these biomarker levels and an intra-operatively measurable indicator for spinal cord ischemia could be observed.