Traumatic brain injuries can be difficult to diagnose, especially when a patient’s CT scan or MRI appears normal.
Someone may continue experiencing headaches, confusion, dizziness, memory problems, or personality changes without having visible bleeding or structural damage on routine imaging. That can leave patients struggling to explain what they feel and why they have not returned to normal.
During this episode of Mind Matters: Navigating Head Injuries and Concussions, registered nurse and treatment coordinator Kiley Como spoke with attorney Thomas Ozbolt about an emerging blood test referred to in the episode as the Helix Blood Test. They discussed brain injury biomarkers, early diagnosis, treatment planning, and how objective test results could affect personal injury cases.
What Is a Traumatic Brain Injury?
A traumatic brain injury occurs when a bump, blow, jolt, or rapid movement disrupts normal brain function.
Thomas compared the brain to soft gelatin inside a hard shell.
During a car accident, the vehicle may stop suddenly while the brain continues moving inside the skull. That movement can disturb brain tissue even when the person does not strike their head directly.
Depending on the force involved, the injury may cause bleeding, bruising, stretched nerve fibers, or functional changes that are not immediately visible.
Why Mild TBIs Are Difficult to Detect
Severe brain injuries may produce obvious abnormalities on imaging.
Milder traumatic brain injuries often do not.
A patient may have a normal CT scan but still experience:
- Severe headaches
- Confusion
- Dizziness
- Memory problems
- Brain fog
- Difficulty concentrating
- Mood changes
- Sleep disruption
- Light or noise sensitivity
Symptoms may also be delayed. Someone may feel relatively normal at the crash scene and begin struggling later that day or over the following several days.
That makes the patient’s history and symptom reporting extremely important.
What Are Brain Injury Biomarkers?
Biomarkers are substances in the body that may provide information about an injury or medical condition.
The episode compared them to clues left at a crime scene.
When the brain is injured, certain proteins may enter the bloodstream. A blood test can look for elevated levels of those proteins.
The two biomarkers discussed during the episode were:
- GFAP
- UCH-L1
Thomas described them as fingerprints that may appear in the blood following a brain injury.
What Is the Helix Blood Test?
The transcript refers to the Helix Blood Test as an emerging tool that measures brain injury biomarkers.
According to the discussion, the test looks for substances such as GFAP and UCH-L1 in a patient’s blood.
When those biomarkers are detected at elevated levels, the results may provide additional evidence that the brain was injured.
The episode presents the test as a developing technology rather than a replacement for a complete neurological evaluation.
Thomas also noted that more research and clinical trials are needed to determine how it should be used routinely.
Blood Testing May Add Information When Scans Are Normal
One of the examples discussed involved a car accident victim who experienced severe headaches and confusion despite having no visible injury on a CT scan.
The blood test reportedly identified elevated brain injury biomarkers.
That information gave the medical team another reason to investigate a possible traumatic brain injury and begin appropriate treatment.
This does not mean every person with a normal CT scan should automatically be diagnosed with a TBI.
It means that blood testing may provide another piece of evidence when imaging, symptoms, and the patient’s history do not appear to match.
A Normal CT Scan Does Not Prove the Brain Is Uninjured
CT scans are valuable emergency tools.
They can help doctors identify bleeding, fractures, swelling, and other structural problems requiring urgent care.
However, routine imaging does not measure every aspect of brain function.
A patient’s scan may look normal even when the brain is struggling with balance, memory, emotional regulation, visual processing, or concentration.
Blood biomarkers may eventually help doctors identify certain injuries that are not visible on the initial scan.
The test results would still need to be interpreted alongside the patient’s symptoms, examination, accident history, and other medical findings.
Earlier Diagnosis May Lead to Earlier Treatment
The sooner a brain injury is recognized, the sooner the patient can receive guidance and appropriate care.
Depending on the symptoms, treatment may include:
- Vestibular rehabilitation
- Vision therapy
- Headache management
- Cognitive rehabilitation
- Sleep treatment
- Mental health support
- Gradual return-to-activity planning
Without a diagnosis, patients may be told to wait and see whether their symptoms disappear.
Some will recover naturally. Others may continue struggling without knowing which type of specialist or therapy they need.
An objective test may help move the patient from uncertainty toward a more focused treatment plan.
How Hospitals Might Use Biomarker Testing
Thomas discussed how blood testing could eventually become part of an emergency department’s brain injury evaluation.
A patient involved in a car crash might receive the test when there are:
- Reported head impacts
- Significant acceleration and deceleration forces
- Confusion
- Headaches
- Memory gaps
- Dizziness
- Other neurological symptoms
The results could help doctors decide whether additional imaging, observation, specialist follow-up, or concussion rehabilitation is appropriate.
The transcript presents this as a potential future application rather than a universally adopted protocol.
Can Biomarkers Track Recovery?
The episode also discussed the possibility of using blood tests during follow-up care.
A patient could receive an initial test to establish a baseline and then repeat the testing as treatment continues.
Changes in biomarker levels might provide information about how the patient’s body is responding over time.
Thomas suggested that lower levels could potentially indicate that the injury is healing or that treatment is helping.
However, he also emphasized that additional research is needed to understand how these tests should be interpreted and used in ongoing clinical practice.
Objective Evidence May Matter in a Legal Case
Concussion and mild TBI cases can be difficult to prove because many symptoms are based on the patient’s experience.
An insurance company may argue that headaches, confusion, or memory problems cannot be verified objectively.
Blood biomarker results could provide scientific evidence supporting the existence of a brain injury.
Thomas explained that this type of evidence may help attorneys, insurance adjusters, judges, and juries understand that the patient’s complaints are not based only on what the patient says they feel.
Objective evidence may also support claims involving:
- Medical expenses
- Lost income
- Pain and suffering
- Cognitive limitations
- Future treatment needs
- Reduced quality of life
A Test Does Not Tell the Entire Story
Even strong laboratory evidence should not replace the complete medical and personal history.
A brain injury affects more than numbers on a test result.
Family members, coworkers, friends, and other people who knew the patient before the accident may notice changes that the patient cannot fully describe.
They may observe that the person:
- Repeats questions
- Forgets conversations
- Becomes unusually irritable
- Struggles at work
- Withdraws socially
- Cannot complete familiar tasks
- Needs more help at home
Thomas explained that these before-and-after witnesses can be powerful because they show how the injury changed the person’s daily life.
Timing Can Strengthen the Medical Timeline
Testing soon after the accident may help establish a clearer connection between the trauma and the biological findings.
Thomas described how repeated testing could create a timeline showing the body’s response from the early stages of the injury through treatment and recovery.
An initial test, followed by later testing, may be more informative than a single result obtained many months afterward.
A later test may still have value, but other possible causes may become more difficult to rule out as time passes.
The treating medical professionals must determine when testing is appropriate and how the results should be interpreted.
Research Is Still Developing
The episode repeatedly described the blood test as relatively new.
That distinction is important.
Emerging medical tools may show promise without yet being available in every hospital or accepted for every clinical or legal purpose.
Questions may remain about:
- When the test should be administered
- How long biomarkers remain detectable
- What levels are considered significant
- Whether results can track recovery
- Which patients benefit most
- How results should be combined with imaging and examinations
More research may help clarify the test’s appropriate role.
Another Tool for Understanding Invisible Injuries
A brain injury blood test is not presented in the episode as a perfect or stand-alone answer.
Instead, it may offer another source of information when a patient has significant symptoms but traditional imaging is inconclusive.
The strongest evaluation still combines the accident history, neurological symptoms, physical examination, imaging, functional testing, and observations from the people closest to the patient.
As biomarker research develops, blood testing may help doctors recognize traumatic brain injuries earlier, guide additional care, and provide patients with objective evidence that their symptoms deserve serious attention.
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