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Cerebral blood flow in acute concussion: preliminary ASL findings from the NCAA-DoD CARE consortium. Brain Imaging Behav 2019 Oct;13(5):1375-1385

Date

08/31/2018

Pubmed ID

30159767

Pubmed Central ID

PMC7232645

DOI

10.1007/s11682-018-9946-5

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85053283280 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   45 Citations

Abstract

Sport-related concussion (SRC) has become a major health problem, affecting millions of athletes each year. Despite the increasing occurrence and prevalence of SRC, its underlying mechanism and recovery course have yet to be fully elucidated. The National Collegiate Athletic Association-Department of Defense Grand Alliance: Concussion Assessment, Research and Education (CARE) Consortium is a large-scale, multisite study of the natural history of concussion across multiple sports. The Advanced Research Core (ARC) of CARE is focused on the advanced biomarker assessment of a reduced subject cohort. This paper reports findings from two ARC sites to evaluate cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes in acute SRC, as measured using advanced arterial spin labeling (ASL) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We compared relative CBF maps assessed in 24 concussed contact sport athletes obtained at 24-48 h after injury to those of a control group of 24 matched contact sport players. Significantly less CBF was detected in several brain regions in concussed athletes, while clinical assessments also indicated clinical symptom and performance impairments in SRC patients. Correlations were found between decreased CBF in acute SRC and clinical assessments, including Balance Error Scoring System total score and Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Test memory composite and impulse control composite scores, as well as days from injury to asymptomatic. Although using different ASL MRI sequences, our preliminary results from two sites are consistent with previous reports and suggest that advanced ASL MRI methods might be useful for detecting acute neurobiological changes in acute SRC.

Author List

Wang Y, Nencka AS, Meier TB, Guskiewicz K, Mihalik JP, Alison Brooks M, Saykin AJ, Koch KM, Wu YC, Nelson LD, McAllister TW, Broglio SP, McCrea MA

Authors

Kevin M. Koch PhD Center Director, Professor in the Radiology department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Michael McCrea PhD Professor in the Neurosurgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Timothy B. Meier PhD Professor in the Neurosurgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Lindsay D. Nelson PhD Professor in the Neurosurgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Andrew S. Nencka PhD Director, Associate Professor in the Radiology department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Yang Wang MD Professor in the Radiology department at Medical College of Wisconsin




MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adolescent
Adult
Athletes
Athletic Injuries
Brain
Brain Concussion
Cerebrovascular Circulation
Female
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Neuropsychological Tests
Sports
Young Adult