Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury (TSCI) is damage of the spinal cord resulting in devastating loss of motor and sensory functions. This injury involves complex pathological mechanisms with massive oxidative stress and extensive inflammatory processes, which can bear the risk for permanent paraplegia. Binary logistic regression analysis including the values at admission of Copper (Cu) and Selenium (Se) in combination with the 24 h values of Se and ceruloplasmin yielded an area under the curve of an impressive 87.7% with regards to predicting the outcome after TSCI. Se is an essential factor for neuronal development, protects from neuron degeneration, and plays a key role in the antioxidative defense. Cu serves as an important catalytic cofactor in redox chemistry, in superoxide dismutase or cytochrome C oxidase. A set of 52 subjects with TSCI were analyzed, 21 of which went into remission, 10 served as controls, and 21 patients developed severe neuronal injury.
