A simple blood test could soon diagnose head injuries, even a week later

Head injuries or trauma can be difficult to evaluate, even for the best physicians, so many people who suffer concussions go un-diagnosed, some forever.  That leaves patients with a greater risk of more serious brain injuries, simply because many concussions go untreated.

The problem is there is no exact science to diagnosing a head injury, and researchers are constantly looking to develop a new method for recognizing when head injury patients need to be treated.

According to an article in the Washington Post, a new paper published Monday reports a team of researchers are near to having such a test to do just that.  The study involved taking blood tests from 600 patients that were admitted to a trauma center during the period of March 2010 through March 2014, with a head injury that resulted in loss of consciousness, amnesia, or disorientation.

The researchers evaluated the level of a biomarker known as glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) at the initial admittance of the patients, and as the levels changed over time.  The results show the GFAP reached its highest point roughly 20 hours after the injury, and declined slowly over the next 72 hours.  The protein was still detectable, however, after seven days.

GFAP is only found in the brain and nervous system and plays a role in healing the body, when it is released into the bloodstream, according to previous research.

In the paper, published in JAMA Neurology, the researchers the biomarker “performed consistently” in helping to detect mild to moderate traumatic brain injury and traumatic intracranial lesions.  Using the blood test as a tool, physicians in the Emergency Room could quickly diagnose patients  The test could also be used for those whose symptoms were not immediately recognized, but may have felt confused or experienced headaches in the days following the injury.

Lead author Linda Papa, an emergency medicine physician at Orlando Health, remarked there were many diagnostic blood tests for other parts of the body, but there has never been a reliable test for brain trauma.  “We think this particular test could change that,” added Papa.