Webinar – Advances in TBI: Emerging Role of Imaging and Blood Biomarkers

Across all areas of medicine and research, biomarkers are proving to provide great value in diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of injury or disease. Major progress has been achieved toward advancing blood and imaging biomarkers for TBI and concussion. This session will review emerging evidence from large-scale studies of TBI biomarkers in civilians, athletes and military service members. Pathways for clinical translation and implementation will be discussed. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) continues to be one of the leading causes of death and disability in the pediatric population. Current prediction models explain only about 35% of variance in outcomes. At the individual patient level, this unexplained heterogeneity in outcomes prevents accurate prognostication and precision medicine approaches. A simple blood-based biomarker that correlates with the severity and progression of brain injury, similar to troponin in myocardial infarction, would enable appropriate triage in acute treatment, rehabilitation planning, and clinical trial stratification. Yet, few studies have specifically examined blood biomarkers in pediatric TBI. This session will review the current state of biomarker research within pediatric TBI as well as discuss several novel blood biomarkers that have shown promise in the recent years.