It is such a sadness to learn that many American military personnel who were injured by explosions when they were on service in Iraq or Afghanistan showed the symptoms of brain injury although they were claimed normal after the CT and M.R.I scans.

They were proved to have those symptoms after being scanned by using a vastly sensitive type of magnetic resonance imaging. The diagnosis produced is mild traumatic brain injury or other words for concussion. The common symptoms most servicemen suffered from are the loss of consciousness in the blast, the loss of memory, or the sudden feeling of confused.

Those symptoms are then learned to bring worse condition like lasting mental, physical and emotional problems. According to particular study, the mild traumatic brain injury sufferers are having structural abnormalities on their brains.

Apparently, a new finding showed that the brain injuries caused by blasts have particular pattern and it met the computer simulations that predict explosions can affect the brain. From this finding, it is concluded that there must be helmets with special designs that support higher protection against the blast if the finding is proven true.

On different concern, a study is held to improve the M.R.I.’s diffusion tensor imaging. This study also helps to develop the diagnosis of concussions. In order to produce a diagnosis, the M.R.I machines will measure the movement of water in nerve fibers in the brain. If there is abnormal flow found, the sufferer may be indicated to have brain injury.

Furthermore, with the discovery related to the specific pattern of brain injury caused by blasts, the certainty of a blast give impact to brain injury is not so clear because the study was conducted over servicemen who had experienced blows to the head not the blast exposure. Still, the finding that blast may cause brain injury is an important finding.

Accordingly, the Defense Department expected the finding will help them to understand the effect of blast to the brain. This way, they will be able to acquire anything they need to diagnose the traumatic brain injury. Many servicemen who become the participants of the study also expect the results to help them document or validate the concerns and to give them needed treatments.

Meanwhile, the research tool – the scans – are still under development to improve the technique to help giving proper treatment to servicemen and help them out of this brain injury problems.