Researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with the Hospitals of Barcelona, Madrid and Seville, have developed a diagnostic test that measures mild traumatic brain injury by using a drop of blood.

Currently, a CT scan is the only reliable method to diagnose mild traumatic brain injury but this equipment is not available in every hospital. CT scans are also more expensive and expose patients to radiation.

This portable device Point-of-Care Test (POCT) offers an alternative to identifying mild trauma in brain injury patients within ten minutes by using a single drop of blood.

The research team has developed the rapid diagnostic test (POCT) called TBIcheck to measure if the level of one of the molecules H-FABP, Interleukin-10, S100B or GFAP (identified during proteome analyses) is higher than 2.5 nanograms per millilitre of blood.