Army finds simple blood test to identify mild brain trauma

[unhappycamper]

Navy Capt. Michael Wagner, the Traumatic Brain Injury director at a military base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, wraps up his examination of a soldier who was exposed to a bomb blast during combat operations. Although medical personnel currently lack a foolproof method of diagnosing concussions, the Army has been working on developing a blood test that can accurately detect them.


Army finds simple blood test to identify mild brain trauma
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY

FREDERICK, Md. — The Army says it has discovered a simple blood test that can diagnose mild traumatic brain damage or concussion, a hard-to-detect injury that can affect young athletes, infants with "shaken baby syndrome" and combat troops.

"This is huge," said Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff.

Army Col. Dallas Hack, who has oversight of the research, says recent data show the blood test, which looks for unique proteins that spill into the blood stream from damaged brain cells, accurately diagnosing mild traumatic brain injury in 34 patients.

Doctors can miss these injuries because the damage does not show up on imaging scans, and symptoms such as headaches or dizziness are ignored or downplayed by the victims.

If the brain is not allowed time to recover and a second concussion occurs, permanent damage may result. Brain injuries afflict 1.4 million Americans each year, says the National Brain Injury Association. Seventy percent are mild cases.



unhappycamper comment: Our men and women have been getting blown up for at least six years in Iraq (and lately in Afghanistan), and the DoD has been ducking PTSD and TBI like it is Agent Orange. Run for the hills. Ignore it.

I'm glad to see you guys are finally making some headway on the issue of brain damage in our All Volunteer Force.

[babylonsister]

1. Rec'd for some great news. Now stop the wars and no blood

tests would be needed.

[w8liftinglady]

2. this made my day. i have seen so much of the other side of the coin.

i'm glad they are finally taking this seriously.

[babylonsister]

3. pm kick. nt

[AwakeAtLast]

4. Thank you for posting this!

I would have missed it - my (estranged) husband needs to see this. Unless once again he won't want to seek treatment... <sigh>

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. It is huge and not just for the military

Remember Malaria's treatment was created by one Walter Reed US Army Medical Corp. Sometimes the military does bring good things.