US Army medics in Europe are trialling a handheld TBI tool that could help identify traumatic brain injuries in as little as 15 minutes.
The US Army said the i-STAT Alinity device, made by Abbott Laboratories, is being tested to help medics make faster decisions in battlefield settings.
Military officials said the tool could give medics more objective information than traditional concussion checks, which often rely on questions, memory tasks and judgement calls.
The device works by measuring biomarkers in the blood. Biomarkers are biological signs that may suggest injury or disease is present in the body.
Lt. Col. Bradley Dengler, neurosurgery consultant to the Army Surgeon General and director of the Military Traumatic Brain Injury Initiative at the Uniformed Services University, said the device could change how injuries are assessed.
“This is probably the single most important advancement in traumatic brain injury care in the last 15 to 20 years,” he said in an Army release.
“Historically, we’ve missed a lot of these injuries.”
Abbott Labs received clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration to use the device with whole blood two years ago.
The company says it allows doctors to help assess patients with suspected concussion at the bedside and obtain “lab-quality” results in 15 minutes.
Before that clearance, the tests were only cleared for use with plasma or serum, meaning samples had to be sent to a laboratory for processing and testing.
The Army is now integrating the devices into air defence forward units under 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command.
The units were selected because they often operate in remote locations, several hours away from advanced medical facilities and brain scanners.
The i-STAT device measures two brain biomarkers that may be released into the bloodstream after injury: ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1, known as UCH-L1, and glial fibrillary acidic protein, known as GFAP.
Dengler said the tests are particularly valuable because if the blood biomarkers are not elevated, there is a 99 per cent chance there is no bleeding in the brain.
That could improve on the Military Acute Concussion Evaluation, a 15-minute standardised cognitive assessment involving memory lists and concentration exercises.
