Clinical significance of measuring neuron-specific enolase in early diagnosis of severe hand, foot and mouth disease

WEN Da-ke; XU Xiao-hua; CHEN Xu-guang; LI Tian-yu

Abstract：Objective To evaluate clinical significance of the level of neuron-specific enolase (NSE) in the diagnosis of child-ren with severe hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). Methods The clinical data of 320 HFMD patients treated in the department of pediatrics of our hospital from Apr. 2011 to Nov. 2012 were collected. The patients were divided into a mild group (n=235) and a severe group (n=85) according to clinical manifestations, and an enterovirus (EV) 71 antibody positive group (n=89) and an EV71 anti-body negative group (n=231) according to the detection of antibodies against EV71. Seventy-five healthy children receiving physical examination in health care department of our hospital were selected as a control group. Chemiluminescence methods were used to detect serum NSE level in different groups, and the serum NSE level was compared between the HFMD group and the control group, between the EV71 antibody positive group and the EV71 antibody negative group, between the mild group and the severe group, and between the onset phase and the recovery phase of HFMD complicated by intracranial infection. Results Serum NSE level in the HFMD group was significantly higher than that in the control group, that in the EV71 antibody positive group was significantly high-er than that in the EV71 antibody negative group, that in the severe group was significantly higher than that in the mild group, and that in the onset phase of HFMD complicated by intracranial infection was significantly higher than that in the recovery phase ( P<0.05). Conclusions The serum NSE level in HFMD children is significantly higher, especially in the EV71 antibody positive child-ren. The higher the serum NSE level, the severer the condition. Serum NSE level is not only a reliable indicator reflecting the disease course of HFMD, but also an effective indicator predicting the severity of HFMD.