New Research Into Blood Tests for Concussions

Researchers across the nation and specifically at the University of Rochester are looking for easier, more accurate ways to test for concussion brain injury after a traumatic injury to the head. One test that is being conducted is looking into the more subtle damage caused to an axon during a concussion. Current methods of testing only search for abnormal bleeding in the brain, whereas new methods would search for swelling of the axon by use of a Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) indicating earlier signs of brain damage. A second test that is being conducted involves the surplus amount of proteins and other cellular components that are released once the brain cell is damaged. After the injury, the brain cells would release their specific proteins into the blood which could then be noticed in a serum test.

This is important because it is much cheaper than the expensive brain scans necessary to detect abnormal bleeding, and this can be done much easier, for example in a portable laboratory in a military setting. This new innovative method for determining brain damage and concussions seems interesting to me because of the cellular applications at work. The prodrome of the axonal degradation ultimately leading to more problematic effects is easily linked to information that we have studied recently in neurological cells. It is important to see how current research is associated to information that we research in class.

http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/index.cfm?id=1656