PITTSBURGH, Sept. 12 /PRNewswire/ — With about 20% of combat soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq suffering from mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI), medical device manufacturer Neuro Kinetics, Inc. (www.neuro-kinetics.com) next week will spotlight “promising” testing techniques to screen and monitor afflicted military personnel.
The company will present data at the September 14(th)-17(th) Battlefield Healthcare Conference (www.battlefieldhealthcare.com) in San Diego about the use of tests incorporated in its I-Portal (R) NOTC (Neuro-Otologic Test Center) and I-Portal(R) VNG (Video Nystagmography) systems for early detection and tracking of mTBI.
Dr. Alex Kiderman, Neuro Kinetics’ chief technology officer, will report on data collected from varied sources, including a case study he co-authored suggesting that specific oculo-motor, optokinetic and vestibular tests conducted through the I-Portal systems can generate results that may identify mTBI not observable by other evaluation technologies, including MRIs.
The tests Kiderman will review include spontaneous nystagmus, pendular tracking, saccades, horizontal and vertical gaze, subjective visual vertical (SVV) and subjective visual horizontal (SVH), head thrust test (HTT), sinusoidal harmonic acceleration (SHA) and dynamic unilateral centrifugation (DUC) tests among others.
Kiderman’s case study — co-authored by Brian J. McKinnon, MD, MBA, assistant professor, Otology/Neurotology, Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Medical College of Georgia, and clinical audiologist Terri E. Ives, ScD, AuD, F-AAA, CCC-A — is available on the Neuro Kinetics Web site.
“We believe that neuro-otologic testing can be the objective and important contributor to the proper diagnosis and treatment of mTBI that returning soldiers deserve,” Kiderman said. “While we have more research to undertake, the early indications are indeed promising.”
Next week’s presentation comes as a number of U.S. military facilities have installed the I-Portal NOTC system to improve diagnosis and monitoring of returning brain-injured military personnel. Read More »
