A traumatic brain injury (TBI) can have a major negative effect on your life. That is true regardless of how you suffered the injury — a car crash, a fall from height, a fight, on the sports field or on the battlefield.
Because it is such a common injury, considerable research has been funded to help prevent, identify and treat them. Here is some of the latest work being done.
1. Improving helmets
Southwest Research in Texas is looking at how to improve the pads inside helmets to reduce TBIs. While they are working with military helmets, any improvements made could perhaps be used to reduce TBIs among other groups who wear them, such as motorcyclists, bicyclists and football players.
2. Identifying TBIs through breath tests
Your blood and your breath carry signs of your health. If you suffer an illness or injury, your blood and breath will change, giving “biomarkers” to those who know what to look for.
Southwest Research and the University of Texas at San Antonio are working together to try to improve the detection of TBIs. They know how brain swelling will show up in a blood test, so they are using artificial intelligence (AI) to correlate samples of blood with samples of breath to see what the biomarkers would look like in a person’s breath. This could then allow a portable breath tester to be carried in places where there is a high risk of TBIs, such as at a football match or motorcycle race.
Anything that can prevent TBIs or aid faster identification is welcome. If you or a loved one has suffered one because of someone else’s actions or negligence, it is important to seek legal guidance to determine your options and protect your rights.