Blood Tests Might Be Able To Judge Concussion Severity

Blood tests might be able to tell how badly a concussion has rung a person’s bell, a new study says.

Certain brain-related biomarkers in the blood are associated with how bad a teenager’s symptoms will be as they recover from a concussion, researchers reported in the November/December issue of the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation.

There are also some significant differences between male and female concussion patients in terms of the markers found in their blood, researchers added.

“Our study builds on previous research suggesting that some brain-related markers may provide objective measures of brain injury in teens with concussion,” said lead researcher Mia Pasini, a doctoral student at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

“We also identify sex-specific differences in biomarker levels, which may lend insights into the more severe symptoms and longer recovery after concussion in girls and young women,” she added in a news release.

For the study, researchers analyzed data on 339 adolescents 11 to 18 years old who had lasting symptoms for up to five weeks following a concussion.

The kids’ blood was tested for five proteins and lipids that are released from the brain following a concussion.

Results showed that some of these markers did track with the teens’ concussion symptoms. However, boys’ and girls’ markers differed.

For example, higher levels of markers related to brain cell damage were associated with increased emotional symptoms among female concussion patients.

But lower levels of the same markers were associated with increased physical symptoms and overall symptoms among male patients.

“These findings suggest that sex may moderate the relationship between biomarkers and symptom burden in adolescents following concussion,” researchers wrote.

These blood-based markers might play a useful role in monitoring recovery and guiding the care of concussion patients, they said.

“Integrating biomarker-guided strategies into a precision medicine framework is especially important for adolescent females, who are more likely to experience prolonged recovery and distinct symptom profiles compared to males, yet remain underrepresented in concussion research,” the researchers wrote.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about concussions.

SOURCE: Wolters Kluwer Health, news release, Nov. 5, 2025

Source: HealthDay