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출처 : Technology Review

Can a Blood Test Warn of Brain injury?

Scientists are making progress toward a quick test to gauge head-injury severity.

By Emily Singer

Go to the emergency room with chest pains, and physicians can determine fairly routinely--with blood tests and an electrocardiogram--whether or not you've had a heart attack. A bump to the head is another matter. Currently, no blood tests are approved as a way to diagnose brain injury in the United States. In the case of mild head injuries or more serious ones that take time to develop, it's difficult to tell early on how severely a patient has been hurt and whether she will suffer long-term consequences.

The high-profile case of actress Natasha Richardson, who died last month after a seemingly minor fall on the ski slopes, demonstrates this uncertainty in a dramatic fashion. According to news reports, she was walking and talking after the fall and refused medical attention, but later developed a headache and was rushed to the hospital. Richardson died two days later of an epidural hematoma, an injury in which blood builds up between the brain's outer membrane and the skull.

One of the most challenging situations for physicians is deciding how to deal with patients who come into the emergency room with mild traumatic brain injury or concussion. Those with telltale symptoms such as dizziness and nausea will be given a computed axial tomography (CT) scan to look for signs of bleeding in the brain; patients who do show bleeding will need further monitoring and sometimes surgery. But because it's difficult to determine who needs the scan, many patients get it unnecessarily, and others who do need it may be sent home.

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