Sideline concussion sensor on the way

CALGARY — The University of Calgary is developing technology that can indicate whether an athlete is concussed from a pinprick of blood.

The goal is a cheap, portable device that detects and monitors a brain injury within a couple hours of trauma.

Former Calgary Stampeders offensive lineman Jeff Pilon said the innovation could have changed his football career had it been available on the sidelines prior to his retirement in 2010. The 42-year-old from Ottawa estimates he sustained around 20 concussions in college and pro football.

“I probably would have said ‘Hey, can you test me here? Have a look,’ ” Pilon said Tuesday. “It could have changed my ways a little bit.”

Pilon said if he’d been presented with science telling him he was concussed, he might have taken more practices or games off to recover.

The university’s engineering and medical schools are collaborating on a handheld sensor the size of a smartphone that measures proteins and small molecules known to indicate that an injury is present in the central nervous system. The process is similar to a diabetic taking a pinprick of blood and inserting the sample into a glucose meter.

The creators say the sample is taken on-site and the result can be known as quickly as 30 minutes. So the practical scenario is samples taken on the sidelines could potentially clear athletes to return to the field before the game is over, or take them out for treatment and recovery.

“The way it is diagnosed now is mostly based on questions asked of the patient, as there is no objective measure to test for a concussion,” said Dr. Amir Sanati-Nezhad, an assistant professor at the Schulich School of Engineering.

But more research is needed on which biomarkers in the body most accurately indicate brain injury, Sanati-Nezhad said.