FDA approves blood test that determines severity of concussions
The FDA announced this week that it has approved a blood test that can quickly and reliably detect signs of a concussion . Typically, when someone seeks medical care following a head injury, they're subjected to a neurological test and/or a CT scan. However, CT scans can only detect bleeding or swelling in the brain, and for injuries that are more minor but still serious, those scans aren't terribly useful. Additionally, if CT scans don't spot anything, and in many cases they don't, the person undergoing the scan has been subjected to unnecessary radiation and, usually, an unneeded expense. Similarly, neurological tests, which take some time to complete, aren't always accurate since the medical professional conducting it doesn't always have the patient's baseline performance to compare it to. So, taking all of that into account, serious brain injuries can slip through the cracks. But a blood test could provide an objective measure of head trauma that cou...