Brain-derived neurotrophic factor as a promising neuromarker which could predict psychomotor developmental impairment in children with unrepaired congenital heart defects

BDNF is showing moderate discriminative ability in predicting psychomotor development outcomes in pediatric patients with CHD.

This cross-sectional study included children with CHD who did not receive treatment (interventional or cardiac surgery). Psychomotor development was evaluated using the Denver II Screening Test. Blood samples were collected for neuromarkers analysis: neuron-specific enolase (NSE), protein S100 (pS100), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP).

We enrolled 77 children. Patients with CHD experienced more frequent developmental delays compared to healthy children (12-34% in the non-cyanotic group and 26-74% in the cyanotic group). The association between type of CHD and psychomotor impairment was statistically significant (p < 0.0001, RR = 2.604, CI = 2.07-3.26). Neuromarkers value was compared between cyanotic and non-cyanotic groups: NSE and BDNF values were higher in the cyanotic group, respectively, pS100 and GFAP had slightly higher values in the non-cyanotic group. A correlation coefficient of 0.35 (p = 0.023) was obtained between psychomotor development and BDNF level. An AUC of 0.72 was obtained for psychomotor development and BDNF in ROC analysis with the cut-off value of 5895 pg/ml.