Should you be worried about that hit to your head?

We certainly take head injuries a lot more seriously now than we did in the past. Even the toughest NFL players have head-injury protocols that they have to follow.

So, if you do hit your head due to a slip, fall, or any other kind of conk, you’re no longer expected to just “walk it off.” Often, going to the ER for an evaluation is the next step – especially if you’re a bit on the older side. And once there, you can expect to be given a CT scan to see if there’s anything to worry about.

And that’s not a bad idea, because when it comes to your brain, it’s definitely better to be safe than sorry — except for one little detail. CT scans give off a whole lot of radiation — said to be 200 times more than what you’d get from a chest X-ray.

And if you’ve recently undergone similar kinds of diagnostic testing, that can add up fast.

But now, there’s another way to be on the safe side — a test that can quickly determine if there’s been an injury to your brain. And it doesn’t give off one millirem of radiation!

The blood-brain connection

You might remember reading about actress Natasha Richardson, who suddenly died after receiving a “minor” head injury while taking a skiing lesson.

Doctors even have an expression for that: “talk and die syndrome.”  Yikes!

All of which is probably why physicians are so careful about any kind of head trauma these days…and will immediately order up a CT scan to make sure everything is A-OK

Believe it or not, however, the FDA is finally concerned that we may all be getting too much radiation exposure from medical testing — and even has an “initiative to reduce unnecessary radiation.”

Now, that on its own is pretty amazing! And that’s what was likely behind the agency’s quick approval of the Brain Trauma Indicator, a blood test that checks for certain proteins that are released into the bloodstream soon after a serious head injury. This test, which can be administered up to 12 hours after hitting your head, lets doctors know if further testing or treatment is necessary.

When measured against a CT scan, the new procedure was found to be over 97 percent as effective in detecting a brain injury — and practically 100 percent on target when it comes to ruling out a concussion.

And while a CT scan can easily run over $1,000, this test is more in the range of $150.

But how do you know if a head injury is serious enough to even consider going to the ER in the first place?

While not every little knock on the noggin requires medical care, there are some warning signs that you should never ignore, such as:

• headache or vomiting,
• confusion (especially not recognizing faces or places),
• any symptoms that could indicate a seizure (which can include muscle spasms, hallucinations and blackouts), and
• losing consciousness for any period of time.

How your head injury occurred is also an important factor. A mishap such as falling down stairs or taking a swan-dive to the sidewalk certainly deserves medical attention.

And if you’re on a blood-thinner, that in itself can, of course, make any hit to the head more dangerous.

What killed Natasha Richardson, for example, was an epidural hematoma — bleeding between the skull and the brain, which can cause some of the symptoms listed above, as well as ones similar to a stroke.

Since this blood test is brand-new, it might not be available where you are yet. But should you find yourself in a situation where a doc is ordering a CT scan for a head injury, try asking about it first.

And if your doctor tries to pooh-pooh your worries about radiation, simply tell him that the FDA is equally concerned. That’s something that even the most smug ER doc can’t argue with!

“FDA approves first blood test for concussion” Nadia Kounang, February 14, 2018, CNN, cnn.com