• Mario Kofler, Alois Schiefecker, Boris Ferger, Ronny Beer, Florian Sohm, Gregor Broessner, Werner Hackl, Paul Rhomberg, Peter Lackner, Bettina Pfausler, Claudius Thomé, Erich Schmutzhard, and Raimund Helbok.
• Neurological Intensive Care Unit, Department of Neurology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Anichstrasse 35, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria. Mario.Kofler@i-med.ac.at.
• Neurocrit Care. 2015 Dec 1; 23 (3): 321-9.

BackgroundCerebral edema and delayed cerebral infarction (DCI) are common complications after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) and associated with poor functional outcome. Experimental data suggest that the amino acid taurine is released into the brain extracellular space secondary to cytotoxic edema and brain tissue hypoxia, and therefore may serve as a biomarker for secondary brain injury after aSAH. On the other hand, neuroprotective mechanisms of taurine treatment have been described in the experimental setting.MethodsWe analyzed cerebral taurine levels using high-performance liquid chromatography in the brain extracellular fluid of 25 consecutive aSAH patients with multimodal neuromonitoring including cerebral microdialysis (CMD). Patient characteristics and clinical course were prospectively recorded. Associations with CMD-taurine levels were analyzed using generalized estimating equations with an autoregressive process to handle repeated observations within subjects.ResultsCMD-taurine levels were highest in the first days after aSAH (11.2 ± 3.2 µM/l) and significantly decreased over time (p < 0.001). Patients with brain edema on admission or during hospitalization (N = 20; 80 %) and patients developing DCI (N = 5; 20 %) had higher brain extracellular taurine levels compared to those without (Wald = 7.3, df = 1, p < 0.01; Wald = 10.1, df = 1, p = 0.001, respectively) even after adjusting for disease severity and CMD-probe location. There was no correlation between parenteral taurine supplementation and brain extracellular taurine (p = 0.6). Moreover, a significant correlation with brain extracellular glutamate (r = 0.82, p < 0.001), lactate (r = 0.56, p < 0.02), pyruvate (r = 0.39, p < 0.01), potassium (r = 0.37, p = 0.01), and lactate-to-pyruvate ratio (r = 0.24, p = 0.02) was found.ConclusionsSignificantly higher CMD-taurine levels were found in patients with brain edema or DCI after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. Its value as a potential biomarker deserves further investigation.

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