ArticleTranslational pediatrics2026
Diagnostic performance of serum neuron-specific enolase for cranial ultrasound-detected brain injury in preterm neonates.
Article in Translational pediatrics, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Neurological complications remain the most common cause of long-term disability among preterm infants despite progress made in neonatal intensive care. Cranial ultrasound (CUS) is the first-line imaging modality for early diagnosis of periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) and peri-/intraventricular hemorrhage (PIVH), but is less sensitive in the detection of subtle damage in the white matter. Consequently, there is increasing interest in the role of biochemical biomarkers that could be useful to complement bedside neuroimaging for early diagnosis of brain injury in preterm infants. Neuron-specific enolase (NSE), a neuronal cytoplasmic enzyme released after neuronal damage, has been proposed as a potential biomarker of neonatal brain injury. However, the exact role of NSE for the diagnosis of brain injury in preterm newborns has still to be explored. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between early serum NSE levels and CUS-detected brain injury, and to assess the diagnostic accuracy of NSE in identifying PVL and/or PIVH in preterm infants. Methods: In this prospective cohort study, 55 preterm neonates (<37 weeks gestation) admitted to a tertiary neonatology center were enrolled. NSE concentrations were measured using chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay, and serial CUS examinations were used to classify brain injury. Mann-Whitney Results: NSE values were significantly higher in infants with abnormal CUS findings compared with those with normal CUS (median 78.9 Conclusions: Serum NSE measured on day 3 of life was associated with CUS-detected brain injury (PVL or PIVH) in preterm infants. In this single-center cohort, NSE demonstrated promising diagnostic accuracy for identifying ultrasound-detectable brain injury. The proposed cut-off is exploratory and requires validation in larger, preferably multicenter cohorts before clinical application.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.