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ARMY TO BEGIN USING BRAIN SCANS TO FIND BOMB
INJURIES -- Fort Carson will soon test a brain
scan procedure that uses gamma rays
along with radioisotopes.
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http://www.wtopnews.com/
index.php?nid=106&sid=1124236
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Army to Use Scans to Find Bomb Injuries
By ROBERT WELLER
Associated Press Writer
FORT CARSON, Colo. (AP) - The Army, faced with thousands of cases of
brain injury from the Iraq war, will soon begin testing brain scanning
equipment in hopes of finding a more accurate way to identify
hard-to-diagnose wounds, the commander of the post hospital on this
Colorado base said Monday.
To date, the Army has not extensively used neuroimaging equipment to
detect brain injuries in returning soldiers because not enough testing
has been done to judge the technology's effectiveness.
But Fort Carson will soon test a brain scan procedure that uses gamma
rays along with radioisotopes, said Col. John Cho, commander of the
Evans Army Community Hospital at Fort Carson. The tests will be
conducted on Fort Carson units returning from Iraq, he said.
The move comes as an interagency task force, headed by Veterans Affairs
Secretary Jim Nicholson, released a report Monday saying injured
soldiers and veterans will get more screenings for brain injury.
It also comes after a recent study at Fort Collins found that 18 percent
of troops who had been to Iraq _ 2,392 of 13,400 _ suffered at least
some brain damage from the blasts of improvised explosive devices.
Currently, doctors often must rely on questioning soldiers to determine
if they've suffered brain damage in battle. Cho said that isn't good
enough; many injured show no symptoms, while other symptoms can mirror
other conditions.
"How do you determine that someone has actually has a traumatic brain
injury other than asking the soldier?" Cho said in an interview Monday.
Such verbal tests are subject to failure for many reasons: the soldier
may not remember, may deliberately withhold information to avoid being
discharged, or may not yet be feeling the effects of injury.
Stephen Robinson of Veterans for America, an organization that has
accused the Army of discharging soldiers with brain damage while
determining they have personality disorders, was pleased with the
announcement.
"After two years of us complaining, they are going to do something,"
Robinson said.
Lt. Col. Reed Smith, head of nuclear medicine at the Evans hospital,
said his staff will be receiving a new scanning camera known as a SPECT
(single photo emission computerized tomography) within two weeks.
Fort Carson will use soldiers who have already been diagnosed with
traumatic brain injury to test the technology and rate its
effectiveness, Cho said. Results will be delivered to an Army review
board.
"We feel that we that we can move forward on behalf of the Army and for
soldiers faster than other places," Cho said. "Hopefully it will
identify a marker that can help diagnose brain damage."
"Obviously this is potentially a very positive thing. They are taking
head injuries seriously. They are looking for a technology that will
detect it," said Dr. P. Stephen Macedo, a Washington, D.C.-based
neurologist and former doctor with the Veterans Administration.
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Larry Scott --
