Citation

Wright DK, Symons GF, O'Brien WT, McDonald SJ, Zamani A, Major B, Chen Z, Costello D, Brady RD, Sun M, Law M, O'Brien TJ, Mychasiuk R, Shultz SR. Cereb. Cortex 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/cercor/bhab095

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Sports-related concussion (SRC) is a serious health concern. However, the temporal profile of neuropathophysiological changes after SRC and how these relate to biological sex are still poorly understood. This preliminary study investigated whether diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) was sensitive to neuropathophysiological changes following SRC; whether these changes were sex-specific; and whether they persisted beyond the resolution of self-reported symptoms. Recently concussed athletes (n = 14), and age- and education-matched nonconcussed control athletes (n = 16), underwent MRI 24-48-h postinjury and again at 2-week postinjury (i.e., when cleared to return-to-play). Male athletes reported more symptoms and greater symptom severity compared with females. dMRI revealed white matter differences between athletes with SRC and their nonconcussed counterparts at 48-h postinjury. These differences were still present at 2-week postinjury, despite SRC athletes being cleared to return to play and may indicate increased cerebral vulnerability beyond the resolution of subjective symptoms. Furthermore, we identified sex-specific differences, with male SRC athletes having significantly greater white matter disruption compared with female SRC athletes. These results have important implications for the management of concussion, including guiding return-to-play decisions, and further improve our understanding regarding the role of sex in SRC outcomes.

Language: en

Keywords

biomarker; diffusion tensor imaging; mild traumatic brain injury; fixel-based analysis