1 week Ago By Jamie Morton
More than 33,000 cases of mild traumatic brain injury are reported in New Zealand each year – a third of them from sport like rugby . Scientists suspect they’ve found a way to pick up these injuries sooner, after identifying telltale build-ups of iron in brains affected by recent head knocks. They say their discovery could ultimately help doctors to know when to stand down players New Zealand researchers have discovered a telltale marker left in the brain after a concussion – potentially giving doctors a clearer steer on when to stand down players.
Around 33,250 cases of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) are reported in New Zealand each year, with 20% to 30% stemming from recreation and sport like rugby. Now researchers have found how signatures of abnormal amounts of iron in the brain could point the way to more reliable diagnosis and prognosis. They found how a build-up of iron in the brain – which can signal damaging disruption to cells and brain tissue – occurred in the early stages of a mTBI.
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