Several recent studies indicate progress in the search to find blood-based biomarkers associated with concussions. Forty-nine states have passed so called return-to-play (RTP) laws requiring better management of head injuries in student athletes, including requiring clearance by a medical professional before resumption of regular activity. Yet a definitive biomarker demonstrating safe RTP remains elusive, and these decisions are made based on subjective clinical evaluations and the absence of self-reported symptoms by the athlete. “Establishing a serum marker of injury and recovery would assist bedside clinicians . . . bringing this highly prevalent diagnosis in line with other common conditions, such as abdominal pain and fever, in which laboratory studies are routinely combined with clinical predictors to allow clinicians to stratify patients by risk,” writes lead author Rebekah Mannix, M.D., from Boston Children’s Hospital in Massachusetts, in a study published online ahead of print on Feb. 4 in the Journal of Neurotrauma. CSF Protein Measurable in Blood For the first time, an ultrasensitive diagnostic platform has been able to detect total tau (T-tau), a highly specific cerebrospinal fluid protein in blood, and correlate these blood measurements to a concussive diagnosis and readiness for RTP, according to another study published March 13 […]