A simple blood test might soon become a diagnostic tool for concussions.
According to a new study conducted at Orlando Health, researchers found that a blood test could detect signs of a concussion, which is a traumatic brain injury that can result from a hard blow to the head. Although there are concussion protocols in place, detecting symptoms can still be difficult, especially since many of the tests rely on self-reporting. The researchers hope that this blood test could be used to confirm concussions and ensure that patients are receiving adequate care.
"Symptoms of a concussion, or a mild to moderate traumatic brain injury, can be subtle and are often delayed, in many cases by several days," said Dr. Linda Papa, lead author of the study and an emergency medicine physician. "This could provide doctors with an important tool for simply and accurately diagnosing those patients, particularly children, and making sure they are treated properly."
She added, "If patients are not diagnosed properly and treated appropriately, it could lead to long-term problems."
For this study, Papa and colleagues tracked around 600 patients for three years. They compared the effectiveness of using a blood test to look for a biomarker called glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) to brain scans. When a brain injury occurs, GFAP, which can be found in glial cells, tends to get released into the bloodstream. The researchers found that the blood test had an accuracy rate of 97 percent when it came to detecting mild to moderate traumatic lesions in the brain. The blood test was also effective at determining which patients needed neurosurgery.
"Not only were they present in the bloodstream, we were able to detect measurable levels of GFAP up to a week after the injury," said Papa. "This test could take the guesswork out of making a diagnosis by allowing doctors to simply look for a specific biomarker in the blood."
Papa added that a blood test would also reduce the need for computerized tomography (CT) scans, which can expose patients, especially younger ones, to radiation and its side effects.
"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," Papa said. "We think this particular test could change that."
The study was published in JAMA Neurology.
