New eye tracking technology could help physicians effectively detect concussions and estimate their severity.
The technique could be used in the emergency room or on the sideline of sporting events, NYU Langone Medical Center reported. It employs a novel eye-tracking device to measure the severity of a concussion following a head injury.
"Concussion is a condition that has been plagued by the lack of an objective diagnostic tool which, in turn, has helped drive confusion and fears among those affected and their families," said lead investigator Uzma Samadani, assistant professor in the Departments of Neurosurgery, Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Physiology at NYU Langone. "Our new eye-tracking methodology may be the missing piece to help better diagnose concussion severity, enable testing of diagnostics and therapeutics, and help assess recovery, such as when a patient can safely return to work following a head injury."
Studies have shown about 90 percent of patients with concussions exhibit eye movement dysfunctions. Current methods of detecting these abnormalities are usually no more advanced than asking a patient to follow a doctor's finger with their eyes.
To test this new method the researchers compared 64 healthy controls to 75 patients who had experienced head trauma. The tracked the patients' pupil movement for 200 seconds as they watched a music video. The researchers determined the patients who had hit their heads and had suffered new brain damage had significantly poorer eye coordination than those who did not. Patients who hit their heads but had normal CT scans had slightly decreased eye coordination for between one and two weeks following the injury but made a full recovery after about a month.
"Traumatic brain injury is one of the most common causes of neurologic morbidity in the world today," said Richard G. Ellenbogen, MD, The Theodore S. Roberts Endowed Chair and professor and chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at University of Washington Medicine. "Sports concussion, on the mild end of the spectrum of TBI, has captured the fascination of both the public and media. Since concussion affects all ages, both genders and occurs in all sports, being able to make the diagnosis quickly and accurately is essential. The challenge physicians have in identifying concussion is that the diagnosis is often based on self-reported symptom."
The findings were published in a recent edition of the Journal of Neurosurgery.
