Yes, there is a Blood Test for Concussion (but how will it be used?)
This February in the USA, the FDA approved a blood test for concussion (also known as mild traumatic brain injury). This is a remarkable step forward, but its usefulness may be in the future, not in the present.
Normally, patients who suspect they have a concussion will be evaluated by a doctor, and then they may be given a CT or MRI. If the scans show intracranial lesions (which most of the time they don’t), it will help the doctor know how to treat you.
The new blood test is officially called the Banyan Brain Trauma Indicator. Used within 12 hours of the injury, it measures proteins in the blood, and can predict how likely it is that a patient will have intracranial lesions.
The test is remarkably accurate – almost 99% accurate.
But just how this test will be used in the short term isn’t certain. Will it actually help patients avoid a scan? Well, first patients would have to chose the slower choice – waiting several hours for blood test results instead of the much quicker scan. If it seems that the patient is likely to have intracranial lesions, will the doctor call for a scan anyway? And if they’re feeling sick and the test comes back negative, will a CT scan be called for in case they’re the 1% that the test doesn’t work for?
Of course everyone wants to avoid scans, lower health care costs, and have better diagnoses. But it may take some time before this test is actually useful in the real world.
There are a couple things that would be helpful, at first glance. First, this test is approved for adults, not children. But the company is working on a trial for children, so that’s coming.
Second, it would be interesting to see results from this test or similar tests correlated with symptoms. In other words, could a blood test predict how likely I am to have serious symptoms, or long term symptoms, from a concussion?
The problem is that most CT scans come back negative – and so presumably most blood tests would be negative too. But if levels could predict my risk for symptoms, the test could be a lot more useful.
Here are some more resources so you can dig deeper into this new test:
- Banyan Biomarkers website
- FDA Press Release: FDA authorizes marketing of first blood test to aid in the evaluation of concussion in adults
- New York Times: Concussions Can Be Detected With New Blood Test Approved by F.D.A.
- New York Headache Clinic: FDA approves the first blood test to diagnose concussion