Abstract #0301

Association of white matter brain diffusivity properties with football exposure in former professional American-style football players

Ona Wu¹, Rachel Grashow², Marc Weisskopf², Karen Miller³, Grant Iverson⁴, Jacob A Dodelson¹, Annelise M Kulpanowski¹, Brandon L Hancock¹, Michael Doyle⁵, William A Copen⁶, Aaron Baggish⁷, and Ross Zafonte⁵

¹Athinoula A Martinos Center for Medical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States, ²Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States, ³Neuroendocrine Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States, ⁴Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States, ⁵Football Players Health Study, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States, ⁶Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States, ⁷Cardiology Division, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States

Synopsis

Keywords: Traumatic Brain Injury, Traumatic brain injury

Motivation: The possible long-term effects of repetitive head impacts experienced by American-style professional football players are poorly understood. White matter injury is a known sequela of head trauma. Peak-width skeletonized mean diffusivity measurements have been associated with cerebrovascular disease.

Goal(s): Our goal is to evaluate the association of peak-width skeletonized diffusion values with football exposure.

Approach: We measured peak-width skeletonized diffusion values in 103 retired professional football players who underwent multi-shell diffusion imaging.

Results: Age, hypertension, body-mass index, concussion signs and symptom history score, total years of non-professional play, and episodes of loss of consciousness were significantly associated with peak-width skeletonized diffusion values.

Impact: Measured peak-width skeletonized diffusion values in white matter may provide an improved understanding of the association between football exposure and later-in-life brain microstructural integrity.

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