With more professional sports players showing signs of post-trauma concussions, and more youth playing contact sports that are sometimes more contact than sports, it is good timing that a recent study uncovered a simple blood test can help diagnose the presence of a concussion.
Brain Buzz
A recent study done by Florida’s Orlando Regional Medical Center found that a simple blood test can be taken up to seven days after receiving a concussion that can help identify if there actually was a concussion and its severity, and also what treatment should be given. Up to a week after somebody has suffered a head injury, something called the glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) biomarker can still be present in a person’s bloodstream. The GFAP biomarker is a protein molecule that is released into the bloodstream after a brain trauma. This blood test specifically searches for that biomarker to diagnose a concussive incident with up to 97% accuracy in adults, 94% in children, Newsweek reported.
This blood test could confirm if someone suffered a concussion – even days after it happened https://t.co/S4o1WfToKT http://pic.twitter.com/cE9rlvVrBd
— CBS News Health (@CBSHealth) March 28, 2016
Standard diagnosis for a concussion is preferable immediately after an injury occurs and is typically performed using a CT (computed tomography) scan. The Mayo Clinic explains that CT scans work by using “a series of X-rays to obtain cross-sectional images of your skull and brain.” Since X-rays involve radiation, using this blood test as a way to check for concussions could significantly lessen exposure to radiation, especially in children. Also, “about 20 percent of people who have concussions don’t come in right away,” Dr Linda Papa, an emergency medicine physician and lead author of the study published yesterday in JAMA Neurology told CBS News.
Additionally, sometimes symptoms don’t manifest until days after an injury so people don’t even know they have a concussion. These new research findings mean people can find out if they suffered a concussion even days after the event by getting this blood test, because the evidence may still be in their bloodstream.
In the study, researchers took repeat blood draws during a seven-day period from 584 people who were seen at a level I trauma center over the course of four years. Half had brain-related injuries and the control group had other types of traumatic injuries. The study found that the GFAP biomarker “was working consistently over the seven days,” Dr. Papa said, even though it peaked at 20 hours. This makes diagnosing those who wait to get checked easier and more accurate because the blood test will be able to determine if there was a concussion, and to what degree—allowing doctors to determine if surgery is necessary—even up to a week after the trauma.
Hollywood Help
Talk surrounding the controversial issue of brain trauma being a “real thing” that needs to be addressed, especially in careers like professional football where the players take hit after hit, has grown in recent years, despite the initial pushback. The movie Concussion brings to light the growing issue of concussions in professional sports, with Will Smith playing the real-life Dr. Bennet Omalu, a forensic pathologist who discovered the connection between traumatic hits to the head (brain) and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
See the inspiring true story of Dr. Omalu. Own #ConcussionMovie on @iTunesmovies today! https://t.co/UgcGE2fPx6https://t.co/sAzfAYdWnD
— Concussion Movie (@ConcussionMovie) March 15, 2016
When he first published his findings in a medical journal in 2005, some—such as the NFL—attempted to keep Dr. Omalu quiet, but years later his message is being heard and people are paying attention to it. Sadly, the attention is being paid because it’s been proven that more professional athletes have died from CTE, some at a very young age, due to repetitive brain trauma related to their sport.
An NFL official has acknowledged a link between football and the brain disease CTE for the first time https://t.co/fXNaVk5Pio
— New York Post (@nypost) March 15, 2016
Just this morning, Good Morning America reported that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. will be donating his brain to science for concussion-related research. He joins a slew of athletes including Brandi Chastain, who played for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team for 16 years, and Sean Morey who played for the Arizona Cardinals, in addition to others who said they will do the same thing.
Symptoms of a possible concussion include dizziness, headache, memory problems, fatigue, feeling dazed, nausea or vomiting. Severe or repeated concussions can lead to long-term problems with learning or speaking, or even death. It is important to get checked out by a physician if there is even a small possibility that a recent injury could have caused a concussion. Fortunately, with the discovery of the very accurate results of this blood test, even for people who wait a few days to get checked, they will still be able to get an accurate diagnosis and treatment.
[Photo by Grant Lamos IV/Getty Images]
New Evidence That Blood Tests Can Now Help Diagnose Concussions is an article from: The Inquisitr News
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