According to the research, whose findings appear in the April edition of 'Journal of Emergency Nursing', the screening called S-100B blood test can be a safe alternative to a computed tomography
define (CTdefine) scan.
The blood screening option was recently found satisfactory by an expert panel and it could be the first of its kind to identify mild head injuries without the patients having being exposed to CT radiations.
According to some earlier researches, after an injury, levels of S-100B serum protein biomarker shoot up speedily. If tested within 4 hours of the injury, S-100B level can precisely detect any traumatic abnormality, including brain hemorrhagedefine and skull fracture, in just about 20 minutes.
Researcher and co-author Jeffrey Bazarian from University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) said: "The S-100B blood test is an important part of the tool set we need to improve our treatment of patients with brain injuries. It's not the ultimate diagnostic test, but it may make things easier for patients, and it will help doctors sort through difficult clinical decisions."
New York-based doctors plan to apply this test on about 1500 head injury patients and accumulate the data for further evaluation and approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Bazarian and his research colleague Brian J. Blyth, assistant professor of Emergency Medicine at URMC, commented that about 95 percent CT scan reports may appear normal for mild head injury which actually may be traumatic enough. Often medical practitioners are left in a dilemma as to which patients have an acute traumatic intracranial injury.
The S-100B blood screening can trim down CT scans by almost 30 percent, in addition to conveying vital information regarding the functional status of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in the case of a head injury, reducing chances of invasive procedures.
The blood-brain barrier functions like a gateway between the brain tissue and peripheral circulation and may not always open after an injury. The assessment of BBB function can ascertain whether the applied medication reach the brain and will be effective or not.
"The disability and death rates from brain injuries have not improved much in the past 20 years. Many clinical trials for new medications have failed, probably because it was difficult to know if the blood-brain barrier was open and the drugs were reaching its target.
“Our study shows that any diagnostic test for brain injury should incorporate a way to measure the status of the blood-brain barrier into its design," said Blyth.
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