This test could predict if coma patients will wake up

A new test could help doctors predict whether coma patients will awake

(Image credit: iStock)

last updated 19 February 2015

Determining whether patients will wake from comas may no longer be a guessing game.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine realized that the most reliable indications of coma outcome only suggest when patients won't wake up. So they decided to study the reverse.

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The scientists were able to determine a measurement, six millimeters, when the association between "deviation from normal brain symmetry and emerging from coma" indicated an improved outcome for the patients, Discovery News reports. In patients who had shifts that were less than six millimeters in two areas of the brain, they had stronger chances of waking. The researchers believe their findings could help create guidelines for surgical techniques to reposition the brain.

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