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Could this test save a footy player's life?

rugby league concussion
rugby league concussion

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The first step in fast-tracking a definitive concussion diagnosis has arrived - and all it requires is a drop of blood


If concussion diagnosis was easier, team doctors would face less pressure to return professional football players to the field, so the possibly overly-optimistic theory goes. Now, Swedish researchers may now made that breakthrough, with a blood test that determines whether a patient has suffered a concussion within the hour.

As of the end of the round four, only two NRL players have sat out the following week after suffering a concussion, as per the new concussion rules, despite more players being assisted from the field for sickening hits.

While the waiting period to conduct the test – an hour after the hit – and receive the results back – several hours – prevents players from returning to the field and having in-game applications, according to researcher and Ph. D candidate Pashtun Shahim, “It is up to the diagnostic industry how much they want to invest in developing a diagnostic kit that is faster.”

The test works by comparing blood samples post-injury to those taken earlier in the season. In players that had received a hit, elevated levels of a nerve cell protein call total-tau, “a promising biomarker to be used both in the diagnosis of concussion and in the decision-making when an athlete can declared fit to return to play”, say Shahim.

To reach the findings, a team lead by Henrik Zetterberg of the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg tracked 35 players who suffered concussions.

The highest levels of T-tau were seen in the first hour after a concussion and these levels declined over the next 12 hours, yet they were still elevated six days later.

Levels of T-tau were also associated with the number of days it took for concussion symptoms to clear and for players to return safely to competition, the researchers noted.

“In the future it is our hope to have a designed test kit where we could evaluate the injured court-side,” says Yelverton Tegner, a researcher on the study, professor of sports medicine and team doctor for the Swedish national women’s football team and a Swedish hockey team. “I would love this test.”

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