by Nitin Daphalapurkar
A new “digital head” might help doctors spot a brain injury and give them an idea of appropriate treatments to help patients recover.
Every year, nearly three million people in the United States injure their heads enough to be diagnosed with a concussion, and the severity of these injuries varies greatly. Sometimes, symptoms are mild. A person may experience headaches, dizziness and memory loss, but if they are lucky, a few days later, everything is back to normal.
In more severe cases, symptoms last much longer. Concussion is a form of mild traumatic brain injury, and even mild TBIs may have significant lifelong effects. For example, repeated concussions can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a serious degenerative brain disease.
These kinds of head injuries can be hard to detect, which limits treatment. The new “digital head” might help.
Read the rest of the story as it appeared in the Albuquerque Journal.