New TBI Blood Test Impacts the Future of Brain Injury Prediction

An innovative medical tool can influence the future of head protection

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects millions of people each year. March’s Brain Injury Awareness Month calls the necessary attention to TBI prevention and provides an opportunity to promote strategies that improve the quality of life for people living with TBI and their families.

We know a high-risk segment of the population for TBI are groups that Team Wendy strives to protect: our military and first responders.

According to the Department of Defense, more than 400,000 active duty servicemembers have been diagnosed with a TBI since 2000. In a past blog, I examined a study from the U.K. that showed 40% of police officers surveyed by the University of Exeter lost consciousness due to head injuries, compared to a 12% rate of similar injuries among the general population.

Modern solutions are arising to deal with this decades-old issue, including an artificial intelligence tool that detects brain injuries and our new impact testing equipment at Team Wendy.

Early this year, Abbott, a medical device and healthcare company, announced U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the first rapid handheld TBI test. The test was developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense. Using a small blood sample from the arm, the device can test a patient’s plasma and provide results in 15 minutes. This is groundbreaking for an issue where every minute in getting an accurate diagnosis counts.

The test measures specific proteins shown to be present in the blood in elevated concentrations after a mild TBI. The results can be used to help determine whether a patient needs the traditional CT scan or MRI for further diagnosis; this can reduce wasted money and time in ordering unnecessary scans. The ease of testing can also help combat the issue of concussions going unreported or undetected by people who wouldn’t normally seek medical care after experiencing mild head trauma.

Biomarker tests like Abbott’s are another tool we can use to explore how to make more accurate and comprehensive brain injury predictions – and leverage that data to develop new helmet technologies, such as a combat helmet liner that can better mitigate rotational head impact. At Team Wendy, we’re conducting extensive research using sensor systems as part of the PANTHER project. In the future, we may be able to use sensors in helmets in the field to determine how operators are affected by impacts in real time.

New ways to collect and evaluate data on TBI will lead to new ways to prevent it.

By Ron Szalkowski

Director of Product Development and Research Collaboration