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Concussions Can Be Detected With New Blood Test Approved by FDA. (nytimes.com)
The Food and Drug Administration this week approved a long-awaited blood test to detect concussions in people and more quickly identify those with possible brain injuries [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source]. From a report: The test, called the Banyan Brain Trauma Indicator, is also expected to reduce the number of people exposed to radiation through CT scans, or computed tomography scans, that detect brain tissue damage or intracranial lesions. If the blood test is adopted widely, it could eliminate the need for CT scans in at least a third of those with suspected brain injuries, the agency predicted. Concussion-related brain damage has become a particularly worrisome public health issue in many sports, especially football, affecting the ranks of professional athletes on down to the young children in Pop Warner leagues. Those concerns have escalated so far that it has led to a decline in children participating in tackle sports.
...we could just stop having our children smash into each other head first at full speed. That might be a more common-sense start.
News for nerds? Ahh head on keyboard injuries! I totally get it.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Fatty spandex catchball is doomed now.
...a decline in children participating in tackle sports...
Such a decline in children participating in tackle sports cannot come too soon.
Fewer kids participate in tackle sports! What are we going to do now that fewer kids get injured pointlessly? We have to do something, dammit, we can't have that!
What? No, kids still can't climb on trees or play tag outside, they could get hurt needlessly. But wholesome activities like smashing into each other during school activities that protects the revenue of the sports industry is something we have to protect and treasure.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
While FDA approved, https://www.fda.gov/newsevents/newsroom/pressannouncements/ucm596531.htm, the UCH-L1 and GFAP markers may be of less diagnostic value in the presence of concomitant orthopedic injury, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27841729.
I suspect the way this will work is:
1. Child is suspected of receiving a concussion.
2. Blood is drawn.
3. 10 minutes later: "Sorry kid, but you're not allowed to play contact sports anymore."
This blood test does not help diagnose concussion. It just helps determine who needs a CT/MRI and who does not. Best case, it saves some kids from getting unnecessary imaging studies.
Instead of counting to 10, a quick bloodtest. If the guy has a concussion the other one wins.
What are the treatment options for a concussion?
They are incouraged to approve anything that can be used as biometrics collection if needed by our Three Letter overlords.
It would be very interesting to apply this test to those who suffer cumulative concussive injuries such as those who box, those who play soccer and who suffer concussions due to heading the ball and those who pray in mosques 5 times a day.