Systematic Inflammation Index as Predictors of CT Findings in Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury: A Retrospective Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46900/apn.v8i3.404Keywords:
pediatric head trauma, traumatic brain injury, biomarkers, systemic immune-inflammation index, neuro-inflammationAbstract
Background: Pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a common cause of emergency department (ED) visits. Although head computed tomography (CT) remains the gold standard for the acute evaluation of TBI, it is associated with ionizing radiation exposure. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between SII and head CT positivity in pediatric patients with TBI.
Methods: This retrospective study included children aged ≤18 years presenting to the emergency department with TBI who underwent head CT. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory data were collected, and SII was calculated from complete blood count parameters. The primary outcome was CT positivity. ROC curve analysis was performed to assess diagnostic performance.
Results: A total of 52 pediatric patients (mean age 13.1 ± 3.4 years) were included, of whom 33 (63.5%) had a positive head CT scan. Median SII was significantly higher in CT-positive patients compared with CT-negative patients [1891 (646–2892) vs 1128 (428–1712); p = 0.025]. ROC analysis demonstrated moderate discriminative ability of SII for predicting CT positivity (AUC 0.687, 95% CI 0.543–0.832). Using the Youden index, the optimal SII cut-off value was 1837.7, yielding a sensitivity of 51.5% and specificity of 89.5%. In multivariable analysis adjusted for age and GCS, SII was not independently associated with CT positivity (p = 0.118).
Conclusions: SII was associated with CT positivity in univariable analysis but not after adjustment, suggesting a potential role as an exploratory adjunctive biomarker. Larger prospective multicenter studies are warranted to clarify the potential role of SII as an adjunct to clinical decision rules in pediatric TBI.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Eleni Romeo, George A. Alexiou, Spyridon Voulgaris
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
When publishing in Archives of Pediatric Neurosurgery journal, authors retain the copyright of their article and agree to license their work using a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC BY 4.0), thereby accepting the terms and conditions of this license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode).
The CC BY 4.0 license terms applies to both readers and the publisher and allows them to: share (copy and redistribute in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon) the article for any purpose, even commercially, provided that appropriate credit is given to the authors and the journal in which the article was published.
Authors grant Archives of Pediatric Neurosurgery the right to first publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher. Under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license, authors allow the journal to distribute the article in third party databases, as long as its original authors and citation details are identified.
