New Blood Test Shows Promise in Predicting Spinal Cord Injury Outcomes
WATERLOO, ON - July 22, 2025 – A new blood test developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo may offer a rapid and accurate way to predict the severity of spinal cord injuries and a patient’s potential for recovery, perhaps revolutionizing early treatment decisions. The test, detailed in a study analyzing data from over 2,600 patients, relies on identifying patterns in routine blood work – specifically electrolytes and immune cells – collected within the first three weeks after injury.
Currently, assessing the extent of spinal cord damage relies heavily on imaging like MRIs, which aren’t always immediatly available, especially in resource-limited settings. This new approach offers a potentially faster,more accessible,and cost-effective option. Accurate early prognosis is critical for determining appropriate treatment pathways,prioritizing care in overwhelmed intensive care units,and providing realistic expectations for patients and their families.
The research team utilized machine learning to analyze medical records, discovering that specific elements within blood samples taken one to three days after admission could predict weather a spinal cord lesion would be complete or incomplete. The test doesn’t focus on a single biomarker, but rather tracks the evolution of multiple markers over several days.
“Predicting the severity of injuries from the first days is clinically relevant for decision-making, but it is a complex task from a simple neurological assessment,” explains Dr. Abel Torres Espín of the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo. “We demonstrate the possibility of predicting whether a lesion is complete or incomplete motor thanks to routine blood data collected quickly after the injury and an improvement in prediction performance over time.”
Researchers emphasize the accessibility of the test, noting that routine blood tests are readily available and economical in most hospitals, unlike MRIs and other specialized biomarker analyses.Dr.Torres Estpon added that this work “can open up new perspectives in clinical practice, making it possible to make more informed decisions on processing priorities and the allocation of resources in intensive care services for many physical injuries.”
Further research and clinical validation are planned to refine the test and establish standardized protocols for its implementation in hospitals.
