Spit Test May Help Reveal Concussion Severity
When a child suffers a concussion, it's very hard to tell if the brain injury will cause long-term problems. An experimental test that looks for bits of genetic material in spit might help.
A little spit may help predict whether a child's concussion symptoms will subside in days or persist for weeks.
A test that measures fragments of genetic material in saliva was nearly 90 percent accurate in identifying children and adolescents whose symptoms persisted for at least a month, according to a study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics.
That's in contrast
