Progress in diagnosis of concussions a huge deal

The once-hopelessly outnumbered good guys finally are winning the revolutionary war that has been raging against brain injuries.

Imagine being able to detect a concussion inside of 30 minutes.

Imagine no further.

Pay attention, because this is important to the military, to all of humanity. And, in that this column appears in our sports pages, let’s just say it will in all probability become a groundbreaker involving football and the concussions that threaten the game’s foundation — and thus, of course, all contact sports.

The FDA has granted commercialization of the first blood test for mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), concussion in layman’s terms.

This is a big deal for San Diego-based Banyan Biomarkers, Inc., a diagnostic company that developed the test behind $100 million provided by the Department of Defense to rapidly diagnose concussions in the field.

Rejoicing came to the small Rancho Bernardo company last week when the FDA officially approved the test — which years ago had its roots at the University of Florida — for commercial use.

I’m not going to get too technical here, because I have problems with technical. I’ll just say it’s an enormous breakthrough, because I like enormous breakthroughs.

Source :- sandiegouniontribune