Prospective study of changes in regional brain myelin content after concussion

Repetitive concussion or hits to the head can have serious cumulative effects. Studies in animals and in humans with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury suggest damage to the axon's myelin sheath. We studied two ice hockey teams over one season and measured the brain's myelin water fraction before and after concussion. Voxel-wise tract based statistical analysis showed significant reduction of myelin water fraction at two weeks post-injury for the eleven concussed subjects. Using an atlas-based based region of interest approach, we found reduction in myelin in the whole cohort at the end of the hockey season compared to baseline.

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