Abstract #0003

Associations Between Brain Metabolites Measured With MR Spectroscopy & Head Impacts in High School American Football Athletes

Zexuan Liu¹, Jonathan A Dudley², Jed A Diekfuss^3,4,5, Nadine Ahmed⁶, Alex D Edmondson^2,7, Kim M Cecil^2,7, Weihong Yuan^2,7, Taylor M Zuleger^3,4,5, Alexis B Slutsky-Ganesh^3,4,5, Kim D Barber Foss^3,4,5, Gregory D Myer^1,3,4,5,8,9, and Candace C Fleischer^1,10

¹Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States, ²Imaging Research Center, Department of Radiology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, United States, ³Emory Sports Performance and Research Center (SPARC), Flowery Branch, GA, United States, ⁴Emory Sports Medicine Center, Atlanta, GA, United States, ⁵Department of Orthopaedics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, United States, ⁶Department of Neuroscience, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, United States, ⁷Department of Radiology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, United States, ⁸The Micheli Center for Sports Injury Prevention, Waltham, MA, United States, ⁹Youth Physical Development Centre, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Wales, United Kingdom, ¹⁰Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, United States

Synopsis

Keywords: YIA, Neuro, Traumatic brain injury, Spectroscopy, Brain, Traumatic brain injury, Adolescents

Motivation: Relationships between brain metabolites and head impacts in adolescent athletes are not well characterized.

Goal(s): To investigate longitudinal changes in brain metabolites related to concussion and jugular vein compression collar use in high school American football athletes.

Approach: In a clinical trial of 215 athletes, we evaluated relationships between brain metabolite changes across a season and head impacts as a function of concussion and collar wear.

Results: Increased total choline was positively correlated with mean g-force >100g in concussed athletes. Significant associations between myo-inositol and mean g-force >110g and >120g were observed in the collar group.

Impact: In a clinical trial of high school American football athletes evaluating MRS-quantified brain metabolites and head impacts, choline emerged as a key metric of injury, supporting the continued use of neuroimaging metrics in charactering changes after repeated head impacts.

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