Blood test predicts damage from head injury.

Blood test predicts damage from head injury. A blood test may be able to help predict the seriousness of a head injury and detect the status of the blood-brain barrier, according to two recently published studies involving University of Rochester Medical Center researchers. Reported online in the March 3, 2009, issue of the Journal of Neurotrauma, the S-100B test can relay critical information about how the blood-brain barrier is functioning after a head injury. Previous studies have demonstrated that the S-100B serum protein biomarker increased rapidly after an injury. If measured within four hours of the injury, the S-100B test accurately predicts which head-injury patients will have a traumatic abnormality such as hemorrhage or skull fracture on a head CT scan.