Brain injuries from war worse than thought ..."These soldiers could have hidden injuries with long-term consequences,"

Scientists: Brain injuries from war worse than thought

Scientists trying to understand traumatic brain injury from bomb blasts are finding the wound more insidious than they once thought.

They find that even when there are no outward signs of injury from the blast, cells deep within the brain can be altered, their metabolism changed, causing them to die, says Geoff Ling, an advance-research scientist with the Pentagon.
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This cellular death leads to symptoms that may not surface for months or years, Cernak says. The symptoms can include memory deficit, headaches, vertigo, anxiety and apathy or lethargy. "These soldiers could have hidden injuries with long-term consequences," he says.
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To make matters worse, whatever damage occurred was so microscopic that it could not be found with imaging tests.
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The microscopic damage changes brain cell metabolism, Cernak says, creating a cascading effect that leads to the premature aging and death of neurons that cannot be replaced. ...