A recent study showed that the elevation of the proteins NSE and MBP in blood or cerebral spinal fluid could indicate traumatic brain injury in infants with vague symptoms that otherwise appear well.
The limited study, performed at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, evaluated 98 infants under the age of 1 who were brought into the emergency room with symptoms such as apparently life-threatening events, vomiting without diarrhea several times in 24 hours, and seizures. Eleven of 14 children diagnosed with inflicted brain injury had elevated levels of NSE or MBP. Of five children who could not be diagnosed with brain injury, four had increased levels of NSE or MBP.
Further study is needed before this test can be used to detect cases of suspected child abuse.
The study was conducted by Dr. Rachel Pardes Berger and associates. It was published in the journal Pediatrics, February 2006.
You can read more about it here.