Scientists have developed a new way to rapidly assess levels of consciousness in people with head injuries.

Based on the Glasgow Coma Scale, the score could help doctors assess the health of the patient's central nervous system in cases of serious trauma.

The 13 point Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was created at Glasgow University and the city's old Southern General Hospital in 1974, and covers the patient's ability to open their eyes, speak and move.

The original team joined together with researchers at Edinburgh University to improve the scale by adding a simple score for pupil response.

Using health records from more than 15,000 patients, they found that the new score, known as the GCS-Pupil, would improve doctors' ability to predict a patient's condition in the six months following a brain injury.

The new development is hoped to improve the way doctors around the world care for patients in a coma.

Dr Paul Brennan who co-led the study said: "Making major decisions about brain injured patients relies on quick assessments and the new method gives us rapid insights into the patient's condition.

"Our next step is to test the GCS-P more widely on large data sets from Europe and the US."