Case studyPortable near-infrared rapid detection of intracranial hemorrhage in Chinese population

- Study to evaluate NIR device to screen intracranial hematomas in Chinese population.
- NIR device performance was compared to CT or MRI in TBI patients.
- 85 patients were enrolled in the study, 45 had intracranial hemorrhage on CT scan.
- Comparing to CT, NIR device showed sensitivity of 95.6% and specificity of 92.5%.
- NIR can be useful for early triage of TBI patients when CT scan is not available.

BackgroundSecondary brain injury is the main cause of mortality from traumatic brain injury (TBI). One hallmark of TBI is intracranial hemorrhage, which occurs in 40-50% of severe TBI cases. Early identification of intracranial hematomas in TBI patients allows early surgical evacuation, and can reduce the case-fatality rate of TBI. Since pre-hospital care is the weakest part of Chinese emergency care, there is an urgent need for a capability to detect brain hematomas early. The purpose of this observational study was to evaluate the performance of a near infrared (NIR) based, device to screen for traumatic intracranial hematomas in Chinese population.MethodsData was collected using the NIR device at the time of a computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan was performed to evaluate a suspected TBI. 85 patients were included in the per protocol population. Of the 85 patients, 45 were determined by CT scan to have intracranial hemorrhage. The CT and MRI scans were read by an independent neuroradiologist who was blinded to the NIR measurements.ResultsThe NIR device demonstrated sensitivity of 95.6% (95% confidence intervals [CI] 83.6-99.2%) and specificity of 92.5% (CI 78.5-98%) in detecting intracranial hematomas larger than 3.5 ml in volume, and that were less than 2.5 cm from the surface of the brain.ConclusionThese results confirm in Chinese population the results of previous studies that demonstrated a NIR based device can reliably screen for intracranial hematomas that are likely to be of clinical importance.