Hand-Held Infrared Device Detects Brain Hematomas

A new brain scanner assists first responders and emergency room personnel in identifying life threatening brain hematomas, allowing expedient assessment of patients, and potentially facilitating crucial treatment.

The Infrascanner brain hematoma detector is intended to aid the decision to proceed with other tests such as head computed tomography (CT) scans. In environments where access to CT scan is restricted or not available, the device could assist surgical intervention decisions. The small, portable handheld device is based on a personal digital assistant (PDA) platform with wireless detector probes that can detect the presence and location of a brain hematoma based on differential near infra red (NIR) light absorption of both the hematoma-damaged and normal brain tissue. The NIR probe is placed successively in the left and right frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital areas of the head and the absorbance of NIR light at selected wavelengths is recorded. When additional underlying extra vascular blood is present due to internal bleeding, there is a greater local concentration of hemoglobin and consequently the absorbance of the light is greater, while the reflected component is commensurately less. Conversion of the differential diffused optical tomography data is then performed, and interpretative clinical results can be derived. The Infrascanner brain hematoma detector is a product of Infrascan (Philadelphia, PA, USA) and it has received the European CE Marking.

"We found a 98% accuracy for showing blood clots or hematomas,” said Professor Alok Sharma, M.S., M.Ch., chief neurosurgeon at Lokmanya Tilak Muncipal General Hospital (LTMG, Mumbai, India), who is testing the device. "That is awesome, especially since it's so easy to use. It is inexpensive compared to a CT scanner, it takes two minutes, and it's completely non-invasive.”

Intracranial hematomas resulting from a traumatic brain injury (TBI) are life threatening and patient outcomes can improve significantly if treated within an hour after an injury - known as the "golden hour.” While most hospitals have a CT scanner, which is viewed as the state-of-the-art technology for diagnosing a brain hematoma, many facilities lack the neurosurgical capabilities to treat the condition.

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