Brain injuries and concussions can be difficult to discover; sometimes, the victim suffering brain trauma is unaware or unable to share symptoms of harm. A fast diagnosis of the traumatic brain injury or concussion is nevertheless vital to the care and treatment of the concussion victim.
We’ve discussed the long-term impact of delayed concussion diagnosis and treatment before. One of the primary examples of the tragedy that can result from failure to discover brain concussions is the professional football litigation regarding pro football players’ head injuries.
For details, read:
- Concussion Protocols For Sports Injuries: Are They Enough?
- New Concussion Movie Has NFL Worried A Must See Film for Parents
- Football Causes Permanent Brain Injuries: More Proof from NFL Concussion Lawsuit
New Concussion Diagnosis Tool: Blood Test for Concussion
This month, there is good news out of Washington regarding concussion victims and the treatment of brain injuries. There remains the problem of preventing concussions in the first place either in motor vehicle accidents, truck crashes, or in sports at any level.
Concussions remain a serious risk of permanent harm to many Americans. However, the ability to catch the injury to the brain faster than before may have arrived for medical care and treatment of brain injury victims.
How? The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the go-ahead this month to a new kind of blood test which can help reveal a concussion injury. The concussion blood test can be done on any adult, from the college athlete hurt on the playing field, to the elder who has fallen in a nursing facility or the truck driver involved in a big rig accident. Read the FDA News Release here.
For details, read the news article written by Lindsey Tanner for the Chicago Tribune entitled “First Blood Test to Help Diagnose Concussions Gets FDA Approval,” published on February 15, 2018.
The Banyan Brain Trauma Indicator
The new FDA-approved blood test goes by the name “Banyan Brain Trauma Indicator.” It can be used in the diagnosis of brain injuries in lieu of current diagnostic tools like CT Scans (computed tomography).
According to the FDA, the Banyan Brain Trauma Indicator will replace CT Scans for around 33% of concussion victims. This means less cost and less radiation exposure for these patients.
How does it work? The Banyan blood test looks for two proteins in the blood that are released by the brain when there has been a brain injury. When the Banyan blood test discovers proteins UCH-L1 and GFPA in the patient’s blood, then there is a 97.5% chance that the victim has suffered a brain injury or concussion.
Concussions and Brain Injuries Can Be Deadly
The FDA quotes the CDC research in explaining that there were around 2,800,000 traumatic brain injury victims treated in the United States during 2013, with TBI causing around 50,000 deaths that year. The great majority of these TBI evaluations (75%) involved concussions (mTBIs).
For accident victims in Indiana and Illinois, the reality is that brain trauma involving concussions and traumatic brain injuries are a serious danger in a variety of events, from injuries on the job site, to motor vehicle accidents as well as school and playground (sports) injuries.
See:
- Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Risk in Motorcycle Accidents
- Concussions Are Serious Danger for Girls Soccer: 2nd Only to Football in Student Head Injury Risk
- Brain Injuries to Kids and Teens From TBI Concussions Suffered While Playing Football, Hockey: Sports Helmets Do Not Prevent Permanent Injury to Brain
- 10 Different Types of Traumatic Brain Injuries Caused by Accidents
Concussion Blood Test Limitations
The sad truth is this is not the end of concussions or traumatic brain injuries. The test doesn’t prevent the trauma from happening — and the new medical tool has its diagnostic limits, too.
The Banyan Brain Trauma Indicator has not been approved for use for children, for one thing. This means that many tweens, teens, and student athletes will not benefit from the new Banyan Blood Test diagnostic tool.
Another limitation of the new concussion blood test is it does not eliminate the use of CT Scans. There will be occasions where the blood test is performed and thereafter, the brain scan is still ordered by the physician. There are those who do not feel the blood test definitively rules out concussions, nor that a positive result in a Banyan Concussion Blood Test omits the need for a CT Scan.
Furthermore, the blood test apparently must be done within a few hours of the brain injury (4-6 hours). It is unclear if an athlete or crash victim presents at a care facility outside this time window whether or not the Banyan Blood Test will be a viable option for them.
See, “Simple Blood Tests for Rapid Concussion Diagnosis,” written by Mo Costandi for Scientific American, published on March 9, 2017.
Still, the new Banyan Blood Test for Concussions is great news for brain injury victims and their families. As FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D. explains:
“A blood-testing option for the evaluation of mTBI/concussion not only provides health care professionals with a new tool, but also sets the stage for a more modernized standard of care for testing of suspected cases. In addition, availability of a blood test for mTBI/concussion will likely reduce the CT scans performed on patients with concussion each year, potentially saving our health care system the cost of often unnecessary neuroimaging tests.”
Concussions and brain trauma can be life-altering injuries that evade initial diagnosis. Parents and loved ones, as well as coaches and caretakers, need to be alert to the possibility of head injuries as well as aware of the need for medical treatment as soon as possible once the brain has been injured. Let’s be careful out there!
