Posts Tagged ‘concussion’
The NFL and high school football have come into focus in the traumatic brain injury world lately, as studies pile up demonstrating the serious risk of degenerative brain disease to players who suffer multiple concussions. The Boston Globe reported that the NFL’s own study showed that retired football players from age 30 to 49 had dementia rates 19 times greater than normal, and that retirees 50 and older had 5 times more incidence of memory-related disorders.
The Boston Globe also mentioned a University of North Carolina study saying that players who had suffered multiple concussions had “several times more prevalence of cognitive impairment” than those players who had never suffered brain injuries. The Boston Globe reported that 1.14 million kids play high school football and 3.2 million more play in youth leagues. New studies continue to be released revealing the serious danger inherent to the violent crashes between players in the sport.
Since it seems that football is not going to stop being a hugely popular sport, parents of young athletes are faced with the task of making the sport somehow safer for their young boys, or removing them from the sport altogether. After all, no matter how glorious it may feel to win games and make fantastic plays, living with degenerative brain disorder with a failing memory in a wheelchair is not glorious at all.
One solution some coaches and parents agree on is to not let boys continue playing after a concussion or head injury occurs until the child’s brain has had time to heal. The Globe article reported on a study from the journal Brain Injury that said 16% of student players in high school were returned to play after losing consciousness during a game. They added that most high school games do not have a certified athletic trainer in attendance on the sidelines.
A Harvard epidemiologist said to the Globe that the NFL should use footage of plays when injuries occur to make rule changes to ensure the safety of all players. Scientists at Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy told the Globe of incidents of degenerative brain disease in 18-year-old football players. They added that the brain continues to mature and develop well into the 20s and that football will have to change to make it safer for the youth.
60 Minutes reported that the impacts between football players, who can run at up to 20 miles per hour, are akin to a car hitting a brick wall at 40 miles per hour. Unfortunately, human heads are much more delicate than car bumpers. As the studies pile up that prove how dangerous football can be to the brains of the players, one must wonder what changes, if any, will be made to the sport to protect its players from serious injury.
Many times, athletes and their coaches and families are unaware that their brains have suffered serious injuries. Since degenerative brain disease eats away at brain cells slowly over time, it is easy to mistake the symptoms for psychological disorders or other issues. It is not until after a person dies and an autopsy is done on their brain that traumatic brain injuries and subsequent degeneration are revealed. Some scientists are working to improve diagnostic tools to better identify serious brain injuries in living patients while successful treatment remains possible.
It seems that football’s popularity will continue to remain high, but with 60 Minutes reporting that “sports related concussions are an epidemic in this country,” one can only hope that parents take the lead in keeping their children’s developing brains safe from traumatic brain injuries, and that NFL players and coaches will take the hint and stop putting players with concussions back in the game.
Each player has to ask himself, “Is it worth losing my brain functions later in life to continue playing now?” If the answer is no, changes to the game and how concussions are dealt with will have to be made.
(pic from flickr.com/photos/aheram)
Soldiers returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq suffering from a high rate of traumatic brain injury due to exposure to explosive blasts have prompted research projects to determine exactly how brain injury occurs during an explosion in which direct impact to the head does not occur.
Researchers from the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center in Washington D.C. recently conducted research in which they ran DTI scans on soldiers ranging from completely healthy to those who suffered direct head impacts, acceleration brain injuries, and finally, nonlethal explosive blasts.
Previously, MRI and CT scans were proven ineffective at revealing and diagnosing concussions. However, researchers have recently made use of DTI scans to detect neurological damage on the level of the neural networks connecting brain cells, which scientists call the brain’s “white matter.”
The recent research using DTI scans showed “a more diffuse pattern of damage to the white matter,” in those soldiers who had experienced non-impact brain injury from close proximity to explosions. This research demonstrates conclusively that soldiers near an explosion can indeed suffer brain damage even without any physical impact.
Common concussions arise from direct impact to the skull and from acceleration injuries as in automobile accidents. Brain injuries from explosions can cause impact and acceleration injuries, as well as a wave of rapid pressure that puts even more sudden, but invisible, impact on the brain itself.
Scientists also discovered signs of inflammation in brains exposed to explosive blast shockwaves, many months after the initial injury occurred. Another team of researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency found signs of brain injury in the blood, even when no other signs of injury showed up.
DTI scans, while promising in brain research, still has limits. Soldiers with shrapnel in their body are unable to undergo MRI and DTI scans due to the powerful magnetic fields inherent to the scans. Researchers hope to vastly expand the available tools for more effective and efficient diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of patients suffering from traumatic brain injuries, especially those due to close proximity to explosive blasts.
The U.S. military is increasingly interested in understanding and more efficiently treating blast-induced brain injuries, as between 10-20% of the soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan return with concussions from explosive blasts. Military and health officials hope to see further expansion of research and treatment built upon the foundation of current research and knowledge of traumatic brain injury.
(pic from military.com)
Science Daily reports that researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy and the Ericyes University Medical School in Turkey published a study revealing elevated levels of the protein NSE in blood samples taken from amateur boxers after a two-month break from boxing. The NSE levels were higher in the blood samples of 44 boxers than in a healthy control group of the same size. The team of scientists concluded from these results that receiving multiple blows to the head and face can lead to nerve-cell deterioration, which persists for months, even after the blows have ceased.
The study, published in the current issue of the journal Brain Injury, demonstrates that when boxers are punched in the head repeatedly, harmful processes are set in motion, which continue long after the initial injuries took place. Earlier research by the same team of scientists showed heightened levels of brain injury markers in the spinal fluid of boxers, further demonstrating the potential for serious injury that fighters may not be fully aware of.
Doctors and scientists have expressed concern that boxers and children who aspire to boxing and martial arts may not be fully informed about the serious risk of long-term chronic brain injury from taking multiple traumatic punches and kicks to the head.
The team of researchers hopes their most recent study will help boxers, trainers, and parents make more informed and better decisions about when athletes should avoid further training and competition in order to avert serious traumatic brain injuries.
The Turkish scientists expressed plans to expand their study to encompass more boxers at different times of their training and boxing careers. The scientists will continue to monitor variations in the NSE levels of boxers before and after matches, after knockouts, and over much longer periods of time to determine more specifically the serious potential for brain damage in boxing and other sports in which athletes take repeated blows to the head.
While the debate continues over whether or not amateur boxers are at serious risk for traumatic and chronic brain injury, scientists have finally demonstrated proof that taking blow after blow to the head really does lead to damage in the fragile gray matter inside the skull.
Many boxers will likely choose to continue with their sport, and children will still aspire to become boxers. At least with this and other studies on the detrimental effects of boxing on the human brain, parents and trainers will be able to make better-informed decisions before sending their athletes and youth into the ring.
Doctors and researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University recently made novel use of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in order to scan the brains of 20 concussion patients to determine once and for all whether or not concussions involve traumatic injury to the brain. The DTI scans revealed subtle brain damage in 15 of the 20 patients. The team of researchers reported their results in the August 26, 2009 issue of the journal Radiology.
The results of the DTI study hold much promise for the over 1 million Americans who get concussions each year. Most concussion patients experience a full recovery and return to full mental functioning over time, but upwards of 30% of concussion patients suffer long term symptoms such as personality change and inability to perform complex planning and organizational tasks.
Doctors currently diagnose concussions by examining patients’ accident histories and checking for the most common symptoms, which include headaches, shifts in behavior and personality, and dizziness. This approach has proven ineffective since it does not allow doctors to distinguish between which patients will recover fully, and which patients will exhibit long-term symptoms.
DTI scanning may now provide more objective diagnosis of concussion and allow doctors to more accurately diagnose actual brain injury following a concussion. The DTI scans may also give doctors the ability to predict whether or not concussion patients will suffer from a loss of the ability to make decisions, organize complex tasks, and efficient management of their time. In the Radiology study, the 15 patients whose brains showed actual damage also performed more poorly than the control group and the 5 non-brain-damaged patients on executive function tests.
Researchers hope that DTI diagnosis will allow doctors to begin treating more severe concussion-based brain injuries immediately following the injury, which could decrease the chances of long term loss of executive functioning. By initiating cognitive rehabilitation therapy early in the brain injury treatment process, doctors may be able to reduce the amount of sustained long-term damage.
Doctors have long suspected, but have never before been able to objectively demonstrate, a link between concussions and actual brain tissue damage. Now that this link has been clearly demonstrated and understood, researchers can focus on developing more efficient and useful treatments for serious concussions.
Medical professionals, high school officials, parents, coaches, and student athletes in communities west of Boston, Massachusetts are working together to bring more awareness to concussions in high school sports such as hockey, football, and cheerleading. According to a Boston Globe article, late last year, the Massachusetts Association of School Committees reported that multiple concussions can lead to catastrophic brain injury and swelling, as well as prolonged post-concussion syndrome.
The group issued recommendations for safety and prevention of concussions, and they propose computerized cognitive testing both before each season begins and after a concussion to monitor the healing process on a more subtle level.
While some schools have implemented a form of computerized testing, other schools use handwritten methods of measuring and tracking student’s cognitive functioning after concussions. Schools and parents have reason to be concerned due to the severe nature of any brain injury, including concussions, which are common enough that they are often not taken seriously.
A spokeswoman for the Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts in Westborough wants to challenge the tradition of cheering on players who join in the game immediately after getting a serious head injury. She believes that current policies on concussions do not do enough to educate and protect students who are at risk of traumatic brain and spinal cord injury in addition to concussion.
High school athletes in Massachusetts are currently required to have their doctor’s or a trainer’s permission before resuming activity in contact sports after having a concussion. Some medical professionals recommend staying out of any sports activity for at least a week after a concussion or head injury.
A spokesman for the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association said that an attentive coach and a well trained medical staff can prove just as effective in preventing serious long-term harm in student concussions. The MIAA and the Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts push for a well rounded plan of action including coaches, medical staff, parents, teachers, fellow students, and lawmakers.
Coaches must be able to react immediately when a head injury occurs in the field. A well trained medical staff must be alerted to take over from there. Finally, fellow students, parents, and teachers must pay attention to students who have had concussions to observe any differences in behavior.
A combination of high tech computerized cognitive testing programs and preventative measures such as safety policy and public education will likely improve the chances of a successful outcome for high school athletes who suffer concussions and brain injuries.
During a news conference addressing Brain Injury Awareness Month, Army Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, head of the Pentagon’s Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, estimated that “up to 360,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans may have suffered brain injuries” (USA Today).
How do you know if your child has suffered a mild or severe concussion? Interestingly enough, there is little data to determine not only how bad the concussion is, but when the patient has fully recovered.
A recent study is linking mental and physical deterioration in later years to a concussion. Canadian researchers from Montreal University focused on ice hockey players for this test, determining that the repercussions of a concussion are felt as late as 30 years after the initial trauma. A similar study that used soccer players as its subjects determined parallel results, backing up the need for those engaging in sports to wear helmets.
Per a Newswise press release we are pleased to help spread the word about a new concussion assessment system being used at the University of Alberta in Canada.
Called ImPACT, short for Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing, this computerized system combines memory and motor skill tests to help determine when the brain has sufficiently recovered from a traumatic injury…
The Army has issued new guidelines for traumatic brain injury care with the intention of catching and treating early symptoms. According to Kelly Kennedy, staff writer for ArmyTimes, this will also help catch soldiers who memorize the TBI tests in order to remain on the field by passing the concussion indicators test…
