Blood test developed to predict long-term effects from concussion

A paper recently published in Frontiers in Neurology describes a new blood test to diagnose brain tissue damage caused by concussion.

A group of scientists, from Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (PA, USA) and Baylor College of Medicine (TX, USA), have developed a novel blood test that detects a biomarker of white-matter damage caused by concussion. This is an advance on current tests that are not able to distinguish whether a patient will suffer long-term cognitive disability following concussion.

The team demonstrated that the protein biomarker calpain-cleaved αII-spectrin N-terminal fragment (SNTF), is associated with white-matter tract structural damage and persistent cognitive dysfunction. Patients who developed cognitive disability, from sustained white-matter damage detected through radiological imaging, had SNTF levels twice as high as expected following concussion.

Lead investigator Robert Siman, from Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania commented, “New tests that are fast, simple, and reliable are badly needed to predict who may experience long-term effects from concussions, and as new treatments are developed in the future, to identify who should be eligible for clinical trials or early interventions.” Siman continued, “Measuring the blood levels of SNTF on the day of a brain injury may help to identify the subset of concussed patients who are at risk of persistent disability.”

Source: Blood test accurately diagnoses concussion and predicts long term cognitive disability.