Another blood test to diagnose concussion is in the works

Figuring out how severe a traumatic brain injury might be is still challenging for emergency physicians. Patients with impaired consciousness and cognition, amnesia, vomiting, and headache routinely get CT scans, but those tests may miss 90% of patients with actual brain injury. MRIs do a better job, but they take time and cost more money. That makes blood tests an attractive option; the FDA approved the first one last year. Now another test looking at a protein linked to traumatic brain injury performed well in a study of 450 patients with normal CT scans. You won’t find it in ERs yet and it has some shortcomings, but it’s possible the test could one day improve how patients are diagnosed and treated.