Advance Assessment Of Concussion Diagnosis

As a result, early identification is extremely beneficial to accurately examine damages to the brain because it leads to degenerative diseases. These diseases are hard to catch if symptoms are not shown in the athlete right away. The NFL has to adopt better protocol to diagnose concussions based on medical data instead of assessing by judgment (Futterman). A more scientific approach is being studied that can diagnose concussions faster and more accurately. By using a simple blood test after six hours of forceful impact, the test can display brain cells that have broken down succeeding the impact. By exercising such a test, it can rid the uncertainty of when it is safe to get an athlete back on the field without triggering further cognitive damages.

Concussions are complex cerebral injuries that result in a series of metabolic events within the brain. The changes are seen in the fragile neuronal homeostatic balances where changes in the elevations of glutamate and potassium have been identified. The effects of concussions have also been seen in the functioning of the brain rather than in the structure of the brain itself. Being identified as mild traumatic brain injuries, occurring due to a bump or jolt to head or neck, concussions can result in both short-term and long-term effects. Although most individuals are able to recover from these head injuries, a small but relevant portion of individuals have been found to suffer from chronic long-term effects including early onsets of Alzheimer disease, clinical depression and other cognitive complications. The occurrence of a secondary concussion during the recovery phase of a primary concussion, also recognized as the second impact syndrome, has been shown to increase the risk for long-term effects of cerebral and neurological failure as the neurons have become incapable of experiencing normal functions after an initial traumatic brain injury. The recoveries from these initial concussions are critical to prevent the onset of long-term effects.

Research shows that half of the admitted patients in emergency centers experience complications several months, even years, after the initial injury (“Psychological Sequelae: Postconcussion, Frontal and Temporal Lobe Syndromes”. 2012.). In some cases, patients complain of periodic headaches for up to a year, depression, and comprehension issues. Rather than allowing for athletes to return to physical activity after two to three weeks, they need in-depth evaluations of their brains and tests ran to ensure their brain is functioning

The sports communities that require concussion education include the players themselves; their parents, the coaches, trainers, therapists, and referees; sports organizations/leagues; the media; teachers; and health care professionals. Several gains in recognition and management that impact upon concussion prevention can only be made through widespread of knowledge about concussions. Concussions are a serious issue in many professional sports. Concussions affect multiple sports in many ways. Many sports today are affected by the medical condition of concussions. Today, multiple leagues and professionals are learning how to prepare and prevent these career shattering injuries. With hundreds of medical advancements and a better understanding of the knowledge that the science has, we are assisting athletes to recover from these injuries. In order to understand concussions that lead the role on the games, one must look at the symptoms, injuries, and side-effects of this

Recently, an enormous amount of attention has been given to the long-term effects caused by a concussion. Despite the fact that the understanding and awareness as to the severity of this traumatic brain injury (TBI) has greatly improved, concussions are commonly disregarded, undiagnosed and/or under-treated. Unlike an external injury that is easily seen, a concussion is an internal brain injury; therefore, without the use of diagnostic imaging, the concussion itself is invisible. However, symptoms can be helpful in diagnosing a concussion when diagnostic imaging is not readily available.

Scientists do not know what happens on a molecular level inside the brain during and after a concussion (Reynolds, 2013). No one should return to play or vigorous activity while signs or symptoms of a concussion is present. Experts recommend that an athlete with a suspected concussion not return to play until he or she has been medically evaluated by a health care professional trained in evaluating and managing concussions. So-called “second impact syndrome” was first described as the phenomenon of sudden death from rapidly progressing brain swelling due to a second concussion sustained soon after a first one. High school athletes who sustain a concussion are three times more likely to sustain a second concussion, according to the Brain Injury Research Institute (BIRI, 2016). It is true that in rare cases, a traumatic brain injury can lead to a catastrophic neurological decline — or even death — from rapid brain swelling, especially in children and young adults (Cornell,

Health professionals will often interchange between the two terms, concussion and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), when discussing this health condition (Halstead, Walter, Council on Sports, & Fitness, 2010). A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury resulting from a traumatic event which causes the affected individual to experience temporary neurological deficits, these are a result of “biomechanical forces” that have reached the head taking effect on the brain (Jordan, 2013; Paul McCrory et al., 2009; Silver, McAllister, & Yudofsky, 2011). This type of injury usually presents with multiple post concussive symptoms, although in some cases these symptoms do not present themselves until later (Paul McCrory et al., 2009), in which can result in the concussion going unnoticed.

Many people hear the word “concussion” and think of it as being just a simple headache; however, not many know the significant health consequences associated with receiving a concussion. Concussions can have a variety of adverse effects on a person, some of which include sensory changes and deficits, emotional difficulties like depression, and an overall reduction in cognitive functioning. Abnormal eye movements and a reduced sense of touch are examples of sensory changes and deficits that are common with concussions. Individuals on the receiving end of concussions also deal with emotional difficulties including depression and even certain forms of guilt. Reduction in overall cognitive

With an ever-growing number of athletes suffering from sports-related concussions (SRC’s), baseline testing has provided a reliable means for healthcare providers to access and properly treat injured athletes. There is a number of different baseline testing that examine a wide variety of aspects of an athlete, such as his or her own self-reported symptoms, mental status, neurocognitive ability and postural stability. Use of such testing, not only assist care providers in identifying the presence or progression of a concussion, but also ensures the health and physical ability of possibly injured athletes.

The purpose of this article is to present both the theoretical and clinical foundations and procedures for pre- and post-concussion management used by a university-based interdisciplinary team coordinated by speech-language pathology. The Miami University Concussion Management Program is one of the oldest university-based concussion programs in the United States and one of the few where the neurobehavioral and neurocognitive management is coordinated by speech-language pathology. This article starts off by giving us a definition of a sport related concussion, which is defined as a traumatically induced brain injury caused by contact with an opponent, a teammate, the ground, or an object in the playing area. It goes on to talk about how research

Athletes are required to take a baseline testing on concussion assessment measures to allow them to have a “normal” level to refer back towards (Guskiewicz, 2004). These baseline tests will help identify abnormalities caused by injuries and post injury recovery. Baseline testing is starting to become required for almost all athletes because the brain is a very sensitive part of the body and needs to be monitored for the athlete’s safety. Examinations by methods of testing are done at the beginning of the season and they help to clinically assess functions such as memory, concentration and balance that can be affected by a concussion(Bradley, 2013). These are tests that are done by the athlete’s personal trainer, if the personal trainer

In medical terms, concussions are described as "a complex pathophysiologic process affecting the brain, induced by traumatic biomechanical forces" (Hunt, Paniccia, Reed, & Keightley, 2016, p. 749). Over the past couple of years, the number of concussions in athletics has increased drastically. According to the data released by the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, in the school year 2005-06 there were 133,000 concussions, which was much less than the recent data of the 2014-15 school year of 292,000 (Brzycki, 2016, p. 57). Not only are concussions becoming more prominent, but they accounted for 24.5% of all the injuries in 2014-15 (Brzycki, 2016, p. 57). Although many advances in concussion protocol have been

In the near future, there is a potential for the development of additional biomarkers for the diagnosis of concussions. With biomarkers associated to specific structures in the brain, new biomarkers could show the specific part of the brain affected by a concussion. With better biomarker information, medical treatments could be developed to mitigate symptoms or cognitive damage (Zetterberg et al., 2013). Certain levels of these biomarkers could be used to predict people increased risk of developing chronic diseases and disorders associated with

When I think of Brain related injuries in sports my mind automatically gravitates towards football. As for most Americans that's the case the hard-hitting contact sport is a household name the NFL (National football league). In actuality concussions are very common in every sport such as MLB, NBA, NHL, Boxing, UFC and the lost goes on. Unfortunately up until recently most sports did not see the negative long-term side effects that concussions can leave on the human brain. One of the more recent things that has spiked tremendous interest in concussions is seeing the long term affects itcan leave on the

This paper highlights the effects of concussions on the body. This results are from eleven published articles that report on concussions from research. The articles, do however, vary in how the define concussions. Groce and Urankar (2016) define concussions by using the centers for disease control and prevention definition, concussions are defined “as a mild form of brain injury that can be caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head.” Other articles differ in their definitions but all of them do have one thing in common they involve a blow to the head that ends in damage. This paper will examine the results gathered by the articles as well as spotlighting their results. It is important educate everyone on concussions because the impacts could