Quick, Cheap & Easy Bedside Diagnosis of Brain Injury

Doctors in India are currently testing a handheld device for the bedside screening and diagnosis of brain injury, that they hope may save thousands of lives.

Infrascanner™ is a hand-held, non-invasive, near-infrared (NIR) based mobile imaging device to detect brain hematoma at the site of injury within the “golden hour”. This refers to the period following head trauma when pre-hospital analysis is needed to rapidly assess the neurological condition of a victim. Pending FDA clearance, the Infrascanner™ will be an affordable, accurate and clinically effective screening solution for head trauma patients in settings where timely triage is critical. It is intended to aid the decision to proceed with other tests such as head Computed Tomography (CT) scans. In environments where access to CT scan is restricted or not available, Infrascanner™ will facilitate surgical intervention decisions.
The InfraScanner™ can be a practical solution to the problem of early identification of intracranial hematomas because of the unique light-absorbing properties of hemoglobin and the non-invasive, non-ionizing nature of NIR technology. The basic method for Hematoma detection is based on the differential light absorption of the injured vs. the non-injured part of brain. Under normal circumstances, the brain’s absorption should be symmetrical. When additional underlying extra vascular blood is present due to internal bleeding, there is a greater local concentration of hemoglobin and consequently the absorbance of the light is greater while the reflected component is commensurately less. This differential can be detected via sources and detectors placed on symmetrical lobes of the skull. The science of diffused optical tomography used by the Infrascanner™ enables the conversion of light differential data into interpretative scientific results. The Infrascanner™ unit is a small, portable handheld device based on a PDA platform with wireless detector probes.

BBC: Scanner spots deadly blood clots…
InfraScan…
Press Release: InfraScan Announces First Patients Enroll in Clinical Trial in Brain Hematoma Detection (PDF)
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