Neuron Specific Enolase, S100-beta protein and progranulin as diagnostic biomarkers of status epilepticus

Status epilepticus (SE) is a life-threatening prolonged epileptic seizure. A rapid diagnosis is fundamental to initiate antiepileptic treatment and to prevent the development of neurological sequels. Several serum and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers have been proposed to help in the diagnosis of SE. Nevertheless, previous studies were conducted on too small patient cohorts, precluding the utilization of interesting biomarkers for the SE diagnosis. Here, we aimed to assess the ability of Neuron Specific Enolase (NSE), S100-beta protein (S100B) and progranulin to help in the diagnosis of SE in a large cohort of patients (36 control patients, 56 patients with pharmacoresistant epilepsy and 82 SE patients). Blood NSE, S100B and progranulin levels were higher in SE patients when compared with control patients or patients with pharmacoresistant epilepsy. Both NSE and progranulin levels were higher in cerebrospinal fluid from SE patients when compared with control patients. The receiver-operating characteristics curves revealed good accuracy at detecting SE for serum S100B (AUC 0.748) and plasma progranulin (AUC 0.756). The performances were lower for serum NSE (AUC 0.624). Eighty-four percent of patients with serum S100B levels above 0.09 ng/mL presented with a SE, whereas 90% of patients without SE had serum S100B levels lower than 0.09 ng/mL. Serum S100B levels were not significantly different according to SE etiology, SE semiology or SE refractoriness. Our results confirm that NSE, S100B and progranulin levels are increased after SE. We suggest that serum S100B levels might be added to clinical evaluation and electroencephalogram to identify difficult-to-diagnose form of SE.