The Army is expected to have an FDA-approved battlefield blood test for traumatic brain injuries in two years, according to an official spearheading the service’s efforts.

The Army’s trials of the blood test among troops in Afghanistan have proved promising, Col. Dallas Hack, a doctor and director of Combat Casualty Care at Medical Research and Materiel Command, Fort Detrick, Md., told reporters.

“Individuals that are diagnosed with a concussion and go to our recovery centers in Afghanistan, the vast majority are showing up positive in our biomarker tests,” said Hack, speaking by phone Wednesday from the Military Health System Research Symposium in Fort Lauderdale.

Hack said the Army has reached an agreement with the FDA on the indications for use of the test and is in the midst of modifying the testing protocol.

The Army has increased the number of subjects in the pivotal trial to 2,000, Hack said, adding the trial is expected to be complete in a year, after which the FDA will analyze the data.Click here to read more

US soldiers from the 1st Platoon, Charlie Company, 2-87 Infantry, 3rd Brigade Combat Team prepare to leave a patrol base on the outskirts of Kandalay village in southern Kandahar province as fresh troops arrive on August 7, 2011. There are currently around 140,000 foreign soldiers in Afghanistan, with about 100,000 of them from the US. All international combat troops are due to leave by the end of 2014, but intense violence in recent months has raised questions over the prospects for Afghan forces as they take over. AFP PHOTO / ROMEO GACAD (Photo credit should read ROMEO GACAD/AFP/Getty Images) Photo by Staff

ROMEO GACAD