Abstract #2892

1H MRS Suggests Chronic and Acute Injury in High School Football Players

Victoria N. Poole¹, Larry Leverenz², Eric Nauman,¹³, Thomas Talavage,¹⁴, Ulrike Dydak⁵,⁶

¹School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States; ²Department of Health and Kinesiology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States; ³School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States; ⁴School of Electrical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States; ⁵School of Health Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States; ⁶Department of Radiology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States

To assess the consequence of repetitive hits on neural metabolism, proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy has been performed in high school American football athletes prior, during, and after their competition season. Our results in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, primary motor cortex, and cerebellum show that these contact sport athletes exhibit significant deviations in season from their pre-season scans that are consistent with glial cell damage and compromised functionality. When the pre-season measures are compared with preliminary data from non-contact athletes serving as controls, the data suggest the contact athletes began the season with incomplete recovery and, quite possibly, have chronic damage.