Effects of White-Matter Tract Length in Sport-Related Concussion: A Tractography Study from the NCAA-DoD CARE Consortium. J Neurotrauma 2022 Nov;39(21-22):1495-1506
Date
06/23/2022Pubmed ID
35730116Pubmed Central ID
PMC9689766DOI
10.1089/neu.2021.0239Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85141889549 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 2 CitationsAbstract
Sport-related concussion (SRC) is an important public health issue. White-matter alterations after SRC are widely studied by neuroimaging approaches, such as diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Although the exact anatomical location of the alterations may differ, significant white-matter alterations are commonly observed in long fiber tracts, but are never proven. In the present study, we performed streamline tractography to characterize the association between tract length and white-matter microstructural alterations after SRC. Sixty-eight collegiate athletes diagnosed with acute concussion (24-48 h post-injury) and 64 matched contact-sport controls were included in this study. The athletes underwent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in 3.0 T MRI scanners across three study sites. DTI metrics were used for tract-based spatial statistics to map white-matter regions-of-interest (ROIs) with significant group differences. Whole-brain white-mater streamline tractography was performed to extract "affected" white-matter streamlines (i.e., streamlines passing through the identified ROIs). In the concussed athletes, streamline counts and DTI metrics of the affected white-matter fiber tracts were summarized and compared with unaffected white-matter tracts across tract length in the same participant. The affected white-matter tracts had a high streamline count at length of 80-100 mm and high length-adjusted affected ratio for streamline length longer than 80 mm. DTI mean diffusivity was higher in the affected streamlines longer than 100 mm with significant associations with the Brief Symptom Inventory score. Our findings suggest that long fibers in the brains of collegiate athletes are more vulnerable to acute SRC with higher mean diffusivity and a higher affected ratio compared with the whole distribution.
Author List
Mustafi SM, Yang HC, Harezlak J, Meier TB, Brett BL, Giza CC, Goldman J, Guskiewicz KM, Mihalik JP, LaConte SM, Duma SM, Broglio SP, McCrea MA, McAllister TW, Wu YCAuthors
Benjamin Brett PhD Assistant Professor in the Neurosurgery department at Medical College of WisconsinMichael McCrea PhD Professor in the Neurosurgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Timothy B. Meier PhD Associate Professor in the Neurosurgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin
MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Athletic InjuriesBrain Concussion
Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Football
Humans
White Matter