Currently, there is not definitive way to tell if someone sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Unlike an x-ray, which can visibly show when someone has broken a bone, there is no test or scan to prove if someone has suffered a TBI. But now scientists are testing a tool that lights up the breaks a TBI leave deep in the brain’s wiring.
Today’s standard scans cannot see beyond bleeding or swelling to tell if the brain’s connections are broken in a way it can’t repair on its own. Hence the increasing research into new options for diagnosing TBI.
Walter Schneider, of the University of Pittsburgh, is leading development of the experimental scan. His research is just beginning in civilian and military patients in order to study the brain and learn if this new kind of MRI-based test really could pinpoint a TBI, and one day aid in a patient’s rehabilitation. Not being able to see the immediate damage a brain injury causes, can lead to frustration for patients and doctors, as well as increased injury when these patients don’t receive timely treatment.