The human body can become damaged in a seemingly endless number of ways, but doctors have long known that brain trauma is particularly dire. It is not only devastating, but also hard to detect. Diagnosing an individual with a concussion is sometimes a shot in the dark even for trained medical professionals, as symptoms aren’t always apparent and reliable tests like CT scans are incredibly costly and time-consuming. Now, for the first time ever, the FDA has approved a new type of blood test that can detect a concussion with incredible accuracy, and faster than ever before.
The test looks for elevated levels of two types of protein that are produced in the brain when the organ sustains damage. The proteins begin to spike as soon as 15 minutes after the injury occurs, and the blood test can still detect the lingering markers of a concussion as long as 12 hours after the fact.
According to the documentation released by the FDA, the blood test has the power to effectively rule out a concussion 99.6% of the time, and successfully detects brain damage in over 97% of cases. Those are incredibly good odds, and considering the test costs as little as one-tenth as much as a CT scan, it’s a huge win for modern medicine. – READ MORE
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