Blood Tests for Concussions

Concussions among athletes is a very popular subject in the news lately, (especially if watch Sports Center), a lot of research is being done on new helmets for football players as well as modifications to the rules to make penalties and fines for dangerous tackles more severe. It is a move in the right direction, but preventing concussions and traumatic brain injury is only half of the picture. Regardless of how advanced the equipment gets or how harsh fines for “leading with the helmet” become, concussions are still going to occur. The challenge then becomes how to diagnosis if a person has received a concussion and if so, how severe the damage is. As of now the method of concussion diagnosis is rather complicated and unclear. If a person is thought to have received some brain injury the most common ways to assess their trauma is to perform an neurological exam, which is often indistinct, or to have a more expensive look at the brain through radiological instruments like MRI’s or CT’s which are surprisingly not as helpful as one would think. This is why one U.S. Army doctor in Maryland is developing a method for detecting concussions through an easy blood test.

The theory behind this is just like that of the blood test for myocardial infractions. When a person has a heart attack the damaged heart cells leak out specific molecules, which then enter the blood where they can easily be detected by a blood test administered by a physician. Like the heart, when the brain is injured its cells leak out their own molecules into the blood. The idea is simple, but the research is quite complicated. Researchers are trying to decide which molecules are most likely to be signs of brain injury and what normal levels of those molecules are in the blood. This idea for a concussion blood test is a great example of a simple yet powerful solution to a medical problem. This is one of those things that will quickly be used by hospitals all over the world and make the path to treatment and recovery that much faster.


http://www.biomedicalblog.com/category/research/