Handheld brain hematoma screening machine

Prompt medical care after a traumatic injury can be the difference between life and death — what’s known as the “golden hour.” The InfraScanner offers a solution to the early detection  of intracranial bleeding.

An estimated one and half million individuals seek medical treatment for head trauma in the US each year, and annually about 10 million individuals seek treatment for head trauma worldwide. Intracranial hematomas resulting from a traumatic brain injury are a life-threatening, but treatable cause of secondary brain injury in patients who have sustained head trauma. But, successful treatment often relies upon timely diagnosis and intervention prior to the occurrence of brain damage. A computed tomography (CT) scan is the current clinical standard examination to detect this condition.

From the time a person experiences severe head trauma at the scene of an accident, paramedics and physicians have one “golden hour” to define what type of surgical intervention is needed to save the patient’s life. But, being transported to a hospital and getting a CT scan is not practical, or available in many cases, and requires transport to a CT scanner. While it’s vastly easier in most areas of the US to obtain one, the battlefield presents an entirely different scenario. Getting a wounded soldier in the field a CT scan quickly is simply not an option in most cases.

Enter the Infrascanner, a handheld device that uses nearinfrared (NIR) technology to detect intracranial bleeding, identifying those patients who would most benefit from immediate referral to a CT scan and neurosurgical intervention. The Infrascanner was introduced in Iraq and Afghanistan to address the critical need for a non-invasive and portable means for early detection of intracranial hematomas. During early field tests with the Marines, the lives of a US serviceman and an Afghan boy were saved because doctors were able to detect and treat severe head injuries with the device before further complications or brain damage occurred.

How It Works

The Infrascanner compares the left and right sides of the brain in four different areas. The sensor is placed successively in the left and right frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital areas of the head and the absorbance of light at selected wavelengths is recorded. Under normal circumstances, the brain’s absorption should be symmetrical when comparing left and right sides.

Extravascular blood absorbs NIR light more than intravascular blood since there is a greater concentration of hemoglobin in a hematoma than in the brain tissue where blood is contained within vessels. The absorbance of NIR light is on the side of the brain containing a hematoma, than on the uninjured side.

The unit includes a sensor and a cradle. The sensor includes an eye safe NIR diode laser and an optical detector. The light to and from the laser and detector are optically coupled to the patient’s head through two disposable light guides. The detector signal is digitized and analyzed by a single board computer (SBC) in the sensor that receives the data from the detector and automatically adjusts the settings to ensure good data quality. The data is further processed by the SBC and results are displayed on a display screen. The sensor can be powered either by a rechargeable NiMH battery pack or by four disposable AA batteries. The cradle is used to charge the rechargeable battery pack, and to copy the data from the sensor to a PC