Current State of Testing
The Neuron Specific Enolase Functional Activity Stroke Test (NSE-FAST) has been bench tested, animal tested (see publications) and tested in two human pilot studies. These are a study in patients presenting with stroke symptoms at the Guthrie Stroke Center in Pennsylvania and a test in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighters.
Descriptions of the Guthrie Pilot Study and MMA brain injury pilot and the results obtained can be seen in below.
Guthrie Pilot Stroke Study
The TET NSE-FAST provides an objective measure of acute brain injury associated with strokes – the leading cause of disability in the US, but improperly diagnosed in the ambulance half of the time. Today, the gold standard for identifying a stroke is the NIH Stroke Score (NIHSS) based on patient symptoms only.
A pilot study in patients presenting with stroke symptoms was run at the Gutherie Stroke Center in northern Pennsylvania with results pending publication that demonstrated the utility of the NSE-FAST for detecting acute brain injury.
MMA Pilot
To evaluate applying TET to concussion, the TET assay was brought to a mixed martial arts tournament in Rochester, NY where fighters had blood drawn and measured for NSE activity before and after a 15 minute fight. Students in the audience counted the times each fighter was hit in the head. The plot below shows that one can correlate the number of hits to the head with the increase in NSE activity.
