Research Question: Can blood test predict recovery time after concussion?
Abstract
Background: There is currently no objective testing markers to predict recovery time after an athlete suffers a concussion. Recent studies are aimed to determine whether or not biomarkers in the blood will be able to help in identifying recovery time after a concussion.
Purpose: To determine whether or not protein biomarkers in the blood can serve to predict adequate recovery time after a concussion.
Results: Gill et al. reports a higher level of mean tau levels in athletes with greater than 10 day return-to-play compared to athletes that returned-to-play at less than 10 days. Shahim et al. reports that concussed ice hockey players had an increase in
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These inconsistencies are seen throughout various athletic settings and may lead to the importance of tailored management based around biomarkers to potentially provide the best opportunity to evade further injury. (2)
Currently, there is no objective test linking prognostic biomarkers to predict recovery following an injury to the brain. (3,4) Having a biomarker that would essentially be able to effectively provide objective data to guide return to competition recommendations may be revolutionary. There are recent data showing a link with the protein tau in the blood as it relates to its levels after an injury to the brain. (3) This data points to tau levels exhibiting promise to be able to provide an unbiased way to aid athletes from returning to play too soon. (3) Objective biomarkers would articulate who would need to be out of activity and allow further time to recover to prevent more severe injury. Keeping athletes, military personnel, and the general population safe from long-term consequences of concussions is important. Athletes who return to play before they have fully recovered from the initial event that caused the brain injury are at an increased risk for long-term symptoms such as headache, dizziness, and cognitive deficits. (5)
Traumatic Brain Injury
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a broad term that encompasses a wide spectrum of
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 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
Overall, this article explores the connection between youth concussions and long term degeneration of cognition and motor skills. Athletes who were concussed as late-teens have a high rate of Alzheimer’s and cognition impairments, as early as 30 years after the concussion. Two groups were compared, one who had sustained concussions at this late teen stage, and those who had never been concussed. Various neurological tests were conducted such as the Mini-Mental State Examination, and the Rey-Osterreith Complex Rigure Test, along with a test for motor skills. The MMSE test found no substantial differences between the two groups. However, the concussed group scored lower on the RCFT test, and a lower response time in the motor skills test. They
In the sports world today, there are many different injuries that athletes experience and one of the most devastating injury is a concussion. Concussions can happen to anyone, in any sport, but we tend to see most concussions in contact sports (Świerzewski 1). While having an informal conversation with my dad about football, he told me it was common for athletes to receive a head injury in a game and continue to play as if nothing was wrong. While watching SportsCenter, I found that some of the greatest retired athletes don’t remember the best moments of their careers due to the lack of treatment. The worst aspect of concussions is that the symptoms can be delayed; in some cases, it’s only a headache so athletes don’t seek medical treatment. Multiple concussions over time can lead to life-threatening complications due to the damage they cause to the brain. Concussions can happen to anybody at anytime, but there is more to concussions than meets the eye.
The media and fans fostered a heightened awareness for sport concussion as they learned of high-profile professional athletes who attributed their retirements to repetitive concussions. Additionally, postconcussion syndrome was identified in players who retired for other reasons in the months and years after their injuries. As a result, the current research concerned with the identification, management, and long-term effects of concussion is adding new and exciting information to the professional body of knowledge required to reduce the risk of injury.” (Cerebral Concussion: Causes, Effects, and Risks in
“In the 2013 NCAA tournament Louisville player Kevin Ware suffered a horrific injury to his lower right leg while attempting to block an opposing player’s shot. Six months later, Ware was healed and back to practicing. He was lucky (Patterson)”. Over the years in college, college athletes are going into debt on behalf of them not being paid to play in sports events. College athletes are in need for money when they don’t have enough to pay for food or clothes.
If concussions are related to permanent brain damage, then the amount of time spent in recovery should be increased, as supplying ample amount of time will provide reassurance that the brain has healed for athletes who recover quickly and for athletes who naturally need more time to recover.
Signs such as memory disturbances, behavioral and personality changes, parkinsonism, language, and gait abnormalities are just some of the few consequences people have to live with who are affected with CTE.1,5 The condition is characteristic of atrophy associated with medial and temporal lobes, ventricle dilation, and widespread tau-immunoreactive pathology. Evidence all points that repetitive traumatic brain injuries lead to CTE before any clinical manifestations arise.1 By instituting proper head protection, as well as safer return to play guidelines after head injury, CTE can be dramatically reduced in athletes all around the world. In more drastic approaches, certain high impact sports can be eliminated as a whole in order to greatly reduce CTE in athletes. There is no cure, no treatment options, and no tests available yet to diagnosis this disease. Experts urge that the best preventative to CTE is to avoid all contact sports in altogether, something that millions fail to
The purpose of this study was to determine the association between having a previous concussion and then experiencing concussive signs and symptoms following head impacts. It was hypothesized that previously concussed athletes would have more severe and frequent signs and symptoms of a concussion following a head impact compared to athletes with no previous concussion. To test this hypothesis, 201 college athletes participated in a questionnaire. They were asked about previous concussions and if they experience concussive signs and symptoms when they had head impacts. After the results were all collected, it showed that nearly 60% of athletes who had zero previous concussions reports experiences signs and symptoms following head impacts! compared to nearly 80% of athletes who have had a concussion. These results show a significant correspondence between previous history of concussion and the reoccurrence of concussive signs and symptoms following a head
More than 300,000 sports-related concussions are reported each year in the United States, and although the awareness of concussions and other head injuries is rising, concussions are still very dangerous to young athletes. Some may say that after an athlete receives a concussion, they just have to wait until the obvious, and most common symptoms like dizziness and nausea subside before they can play again; with medication, and constant rest, this may only take 2 weeks, however, depending on the severity of the injury, there could be some other underlying symptoms that are even more dangerous than the obvious ones. After a having a concussion, student athletes are also much more prone to a second, more severe, traumatic head injury (especially
In America, the sports industry is one of the largest and most powerful country; whether the sport is football, baseball, basketball, or any of the other sports the country has. Recently reports and documented cases have risen involving some of these sports’ greatest athletes, as well as current players, dealing with concussions (Famous sports concussions, 2012). Numerous athletes, some of them being the sport’s highest profile players, were found to have several mental illnesses and diseases, that have been attributed to head injuries sustained while they were playing their sports. The biggest and most predominant of these injuries is concussions. They can cause not only immediate issues, but also a lifetime of health problems (Smith, 2009). Sports related concussions lead to brain deterioration, which leads to long lasting effects throughout life.
Concussions have a huge impact on athletics and student athletes in our generation today. They effect people's lives for the worse and cause setbacks in education and athletic opportunities. Many students who get concussions from athletic activities return to play their sport too soon after getting the concussion, which can cause even more serious issues. Considering 300,000 sports related concussions occur each year, they are very relevant to our everyday lives. Returning to play a sport too soon after suffering from a concussion can result in the risk for a further injury or worse concussion, severe symptoms and healing, and the very likely chance for another concussion to occur.
Approximately 10% of athletes take longer than seven days to fully recover from a concussion (article 1), but they still go back to the playing field before reaching that point. This is very dangerous and is mostly due to the fact that athletes, especially males, do not report their symptoms in fear of being sat out for a long period of time (article 1). It is understood that often if a person isn't feeling like they are experiencing any major symptoms then they might not want to be held back from participating in their normal activities. A concussion starts out as an "invisible" injury and can become majorly serious as time goes on if not properly handled and treated. An intelligent decision would be to have the concussed athlete monitored by someone, such as their coach, before a physician can give the athlete permission to return to the playing field
taken by Americans. But most of the jobs that some of the immigrants take are
The form of change was educating the mass population and professionals of the issue of domestic violence. According to Asmus, Ritmeester, & Pence (1991) the power and control diagram a tool to understand the patterns of abusive and violent behaviors. These partners are used to gain and maintain control over their partners. Physical and sexual abuse is not the only forms of abuse. There are variety types of abuse such as emotional abuse, which is playing mind games, humiliating, and name-calling. Another major sign of abuse is isolation. Controlling what their partner does, limiting contact with family and friends, and using jealously to justify their actions. These are a few patterns that are not always noticeable, however with the diagram