The cluster method can better describe the course of the disease in the case of head injury

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By sampling brain injury biomarkers and glucose throughout the first week after ICU admission, it is possible to stratify patients with traumatic brain injury into different groups with different disease courses that have different prognoses.

– In the long term, this could be used to identify different treatments for these different groups that today receive, in principle, the same treatment, he says Cecilia Akerlundthe first author of the study, is a specialist in anesthesiology and intensive care at Karolinska University Hospital in Solna and a researcher at Department of Physiology and PharmacologyKarolinska Institutet.

It can be divided into six groups

In this study, they can show that, using the advanced clustering method, patients can be divided into six groups depending on their sample data. In the group with the better prognosis, only four percent died after six months, while in the group with the worst prognosis, 65 percent died after the same time, of whom 41 percent had already died within the first week.

Today, many hospitals use a model in which various factors are used from the day the patient is admitted to the hospital to evaluate the diagnosis.

Our study shows that more information collected over a longer period of time may be needed to evaluate patients, says Cecilia Akerlund.

One of the most important measurements that differentiated patients was the variation between the highest and lowest glucose levels during the day, something that receives little attention today. Also, current vital signs are not something that is generally measured within the first week after admission. However, she says Karolinska University Hospital is an exception.

Today we are monitoring some vital indicators clinically. But we’re basically the only ones in the world who do that, as far as I know, says Cecilia Akerlund.

Follow the course of the disease