Researchers at Orlando (Fla.) Health were able to identify evidence of concussions in patients up to a week after the incidence of injury with a simple blood test, according to a new study published in JAMA Neurology and covered by News Medical.
For the study, 1,831 blood samples were drawn from 584 adult trauma patients from 2010 to 2014. Repeat blood sampling began four hours after injury and occurred at repeated intervals, finishing at 180 hours post-injury. By detecting glial fibrillary acidic protein in the blood and cross-checking with CT scans, researchers were able to identify mild to moderate traumatic brain lesions with up to 97 percent accuracy in adult patients. The GFAP was consistently detectable throughout the seven-day range. The samples also indicated which patients were in need of life-saving neurosurgery.
The findings could help to expand the diagnostic window for concussion detection in patients experiencing delayed symptoms who did not receive sufficient medical treatment directly after the injury.
"If patients are not diagnosed properly and treated appropriately, it could lead to long-term problems," Linda Papa, MD, an emergency medicine physician and NIH-funded researcher at Orlando Health and lead author of the study, said in the News Medical article.
Untreated traumatic brain injuries can cause lingering headaches, dizziness, memory loss and depression.
"We have so many diagnostic blood tests for different parts of the body, like the heart, liver and kidneys, but there's never been a reliable blood test to identify trauma in the brain. We think this test could change that," said Dr. Papa in News Medical.
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