In just 15 minutes, a small, handheld blood test can tell doctors whether a patient has likely suffered a concussion or traumatic brain injury — no brain scan required.
After more than a decade of research, the Abbott Laboratories test is being used for the first time in a real-world setting to evaluate patients at Tampa General Hospital in Florida. Doctors using the test say it’s better at evaluating concussions than the brain scans that have been widely used for the last 30 years.
Although millions of Americans have experienced traumatic brain injuries, many are misdiagnosed. Patients suspected of having a concussion or internal bleeding have typically needed to get a computed tomography scan, more commonly known as a CT or CAT scan, a type of test that’s costly, time-intensive and can expose patients to low levels of radiation.
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