September 10, 2015, Kitchener, Ontario
Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer
As always tremendous medical innovation comes from war. In this case, a urine test has been developed that may allow for the detection of a certain form of TBI common in combat veterans. Blast induced neurotrauma is difficult to diagnose because the victims don’t always have obvious motor impairment or other neurological symptoms. The underlying mechanism of this brain injury is still poorly understood.
The injury is generally caused by a shock wave, but secondary damage takes place in days and weeks following the blast when there is some ‘cascading’ failure in the brain. It is thought that the secondary damage can be prevented if treated early on. If it isn’t treated the damage goes on to cause structural and biochemical damage in the brain leading to serious long term psychiatric and degenerative neurological dysfunction.
The urine test show elevated levels of acrolein in blast victims. This can be treated with in test animals with the drug hydralazine. Researches are now developing a drug for use in treatment of humans.
As always tremendous medical innovation comes from war. In this case, a urine test has been developed that may allow for the detection of a certain form of TBI common in combat veterans. Blast induced neurotrauma is difficult to diagnose because the victims don’t always have obvious motor impairment or other neurological symptoms. The underlying mechanism of this brain injury is still poorly understood.
The injury is generally caused by a shock wave, but secondary damage takes place in days and weeks following the blast when there is some ‘cascading’ failure in the brain. It is thought that the secondary damage can be prevented if treated early on. If it isn’t treated the damage goes on to cause structural and biochemical damage in the brain leading to serious long term psychiatric and degenerative neurological dysfunction.
The urine test show elevated levels of acrolein in blast victims. This can be treated with in test animals with the drug hydralazine. Researches are now developing a drug for use in treatment of humans.
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