New UCHealth Blood Test Helps Colorado Springs Emergency Departments Reduce Unnecessary Brain Scans
UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central and UCHealth Memorial Hospital North
Colorado
Courtesy of UCHealth
UCHealth’s Memorial Hospital Central and Memorial Hospital North in Colorado Springs are the first hospitals in Colorado to use the i-STAT Alinity traumatic brain injury blood test, a new tool that helps emergency physicians quickly determine whether adults may have suffered a mild brain injury, including a concussion. Using just a few drops of blood and delivering results in about 15 minutes, the bedside test detects proteins released after a brain injury and can help rule out the need for a CT scan, a process that can otherwise take several hours.
“Avoiding a scan can shorten your stay in the emergency department, lower radiation exposure associated with a scan, eliminate the need for a radiologist’s evaluation and reduce costs for everyone,” said Dr. George Hertner, chair of emergency medicine for UCHealth in southern Colorado. “Everybody wins.”
The test has been used more than 175 times over the past six months and has eliminated the need for CT scans in about 80% of cases. The test is available only for patients age 18 and older and must be administered within 24 hours of the injury.