BACKGROUND:Conventional management for concussion involves prescribed rest and progressive return to activity. Recent evidence challenges this notion and suggests that active approaches may be ...effective for some patients. Previous concussion consensus statements provide limited guidance regarding active treatment.
OBJECTIVE:To describe the current landscape of treatment for concussion and to provide summary agreements related to treatment to assist clinicians in the treatment of concussion.
METHODS:On October 14 to 16, 2015, the Targeted Evaluation and Active Management (TEAM) Approaches to Treating Concussion meeting was convened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Thirty-seven concussion experts from neuropsychology, neurology, neurosurgery, sports medicine, physical medicine and rehabilitation, physical therapy, athletic training, and research and 12 individuals representing sport, military, and public health organizations attended the meeting. The 37 experts indicated their agreement on a series of statements using an audience response system clicker device.
RESULTS:A total of 16 statements of agreement were supported covering (1) Summary of the Current Approach to Treating Concussion, (2) Heterogeneity and Evolving Clinical Profiles of Concussion, (3) TEAM Approach to Concussion TreatmentSpecific Strategies, and (4) Future DirectionsA Call to Research. Support (ie, response of agree or somewhat agree) for the statements ranged from to 97% to 100%.
CONCLUSION:Concussions are characterized by diverse symptoms and impairments and evolving clinical profiles; recovery varies on the basis of modifying factors, injury severity, and treatments. Active and targeted treatments may enhance recovery after concussion. Research is needed on concussion clinical profiles, biomarkers, and the effectiveness and timing of treatments.
ABBREVIATIONS:ARS, audience response systemCDC, Centers for Disease Control and PreventionDoD, Department of DefensemTBI, mild traumatic brain injuryNCAA, National Collegiate Athletic AssociationNFL, National Football LeagueNIH, National Institutes of HealthRCT, randomized controlled trialRTP, return to playSRC, sport- and recreation-related concussionTBI, traumatic brain injuryTEAM, Targeted Evaluation and Active Management
Sport-related concussion and repetitive head impact exposure in contact sports continue to receive increased attention in public and medical spheres. The Concussion Assessment, Research and Education ...(CARE) Consortium, a multicenter cooperative, was established to study the natural history of concussion in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) collegiate student-athletes across 29 colleges and universities in the United States. The purpose of this investigation is to provide normative data from the CARE Consortium and evaluate for differences between sport categories.
NCAA student-athletes were evaluated annually for general demographics and sport-specific characteristics before the start of the competitive season. We collected demographic and medical history information and evaluated each student-athlete's neurocognitive function, neurological status, postural stability, and self-reported symptoms. Sports were categorized by the amount of contact typically associated with the sport (i.e., contact, limited contact, non-contact). Comparisons between the three sport categories for the evaluated variables were made using linear or zero inflated negative binomial regression models adjusted for gender, concussion history, and household income.
Over a 2-year period (August 2014-July 2016), 15,681 NCAA athletes completed preseason evaluations. Overall, 53% of the athletes were in the contact sport group, 31% were in the limited contact group and 17% were in the non-contact group. After adjusting for covariates, there were statistically significant differences found between athlete groups, although the differences and effect sizes were small and not clinically significant. The contact sport group had better scores on Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment Testing (ImPACT
) visual and verbal memory, Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT) symptom checklist, and Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18), but slower ImPACT reaction time and worse scores on Standardized Assessment of Concussion (SAC). Further, the data indicate that some ImPACT score distributions were noticeably different from those presented in the technical manual.
In this large, racially and socio-economically diverse cohort of male and female college athletes, we found no evidence that student-athletes participating in contact sports have clinically meaningful deficits in pre-season cognitive and balance testing. They also did not report significantly more symptoms of psychological distress when compared with student-athletes in non-contact or limited contact sports. In addition, the data suggest potential limitations when using published ImPACT norms when evaluating injured athletes.
The acknowledgement of risks for traumatic brain injury in American football players has prompted studies for sideline concussion diagnosis and testing for neurological deficits. While concussions ...are recognized etiological factors for a spectrum of neurological sequelae, the consequences of sub-concussive events are unclear. We tested the hypothesis that blood-brain barrier disruption (BBBD) and the accompanying surge of the astrocytic protein S100B in blood may cause an immune response associated with production of auto-antibodies. We also wished to determine whether these events result in disrupted white matter on diffusion tensor imaging (DT) scans. Players from three college football teams were enrolled (total of 67 volunteers). None of the players experienced a concussion. Blood samples were collected before and after games (n = 57); the number of head hits in all players was monitored by movie review and post-game interviews. S100B serum levels and auto-antibodies against S100B were measured and correlated by direct and reverse immunoassays (n = 15 players; 5 games). A subset of players underwent DTI scans pre- and post-season and after a 6-month interval (n = 10). Cognitive and functional assessments were also performed. After a game, transient BBB damage measured by serum S100B was detected only in players experiencing the greatest number of sub-concussive head hits. Elevated levels of auto-antibodies against S100B were elevated only after repeated sub-concussive events characterized by BBBD. Serum levels of S100B auto-antibodies also predicted persistence of MRI-DTI abnormalities which in turn correlated with cognitive changes. Even in the absence of concussion, football players may experience repeated BBBD and serum surges of the potential auto-antigen S100B. The correlation of serum S100B, auto-antibodies and DTI changes support a link between repeated BBBD and future risk for cognitive changes.
To develop a sensitive clinical decision rule with a high negative predictive value for the use of cranial computed tomography (CT) in minor pediatric head trauma, to identify clinical features ...predictive of neurosurgical intervention, and to assess clinicians' predictive abilities to determine the presence or absence of intracranial injury based on history and physical examination alone.
Prospective observational study.
Four level I pediatric trauma centers.
One thousand patients younger than 21 years with minor head trauma undergoing cranial CT.
Intracranial injury as demonstrated by CT and neurosurgical intervention.
Of 1000 patients in the study, the mean age was 8.9 years, and 64.1% were male; 6.5% (65 of 1000) had positive findings on CT, and 9.2% (6 of 65) of these required neurosurgical intervention. Recursive partitioning identified the following variables in the decision rule: dizziness, skull defect, sensory deficit, mental status change, bicycle-related injury, age younger than 2 years, Glasgow Coma Scale score less than 15, and evidence of a basilar skull fracture. For detection of intracranial injury, the decision rule had a sensitivity of 95.4% (95% confidence interval CI, 86.2%-98.8%), a specificity of 48.9% (95% CI, 46.6%-52.1%), and a negative predictive value of 99.3% (95% CI, 98.1%-99.8%).
We developed a sensitive clinical decision rule with a high NPV for detection of intracranial injury in minor pediatric head trauma. If validated, this rule could provide a useful adjunct to the physician's clinical assessment by reducing variations in practice and unnecessary cranial CT.
ABSTRACT
Objective: To examine the impact of reducing ED “boarders” (through the use of a short‐stay inpatient medicine unit) on the amount of time that treat‐and‐release patients spend in the ED.
...Methods: A retrospective analysis of hours spent in the ED was made at a university hospital teaching ED for treat‐and‐release patients in 4 clinical categories: chest pain, asthma exacerbation, sickle‐cell crisis, and seizure. The average hours per patient spent in the ED during the 4‐month intervals before (August‐November 1993) and after (August‐November 1994) the establishment of the short‐stay medicine unit were compared. Data were analyzed using the 2‐tailed, unpaired t‐test.
Results: This short‐stay inpatient medicine unit received on average 135 patients per month from the ED, with an average length of stay of 2.4 days. The mean (±SD) number of admitted patients per day waiting in the ED >8 hours for an inpatient bed dropped from 9.6 ± 4.2, before the institution of this unit, to 2.3 ± 2.6. There was a significant reduction in the average number of hours spent in the ED by treat‐and‐release patients with chest pain (from 7.3 ± 6.0 to 5.5 ± 4.8 hr/patient, p c 0.001) and asthma exacerbation (from 5.0 ± 3.6 to 4.2 ± 2.9 hdpatient, p < 0.05), but not with sickle‐cell crisis or seizure, after the implementation of the short‐stay unit.
Conclusion: Reducing the number of admitted patients waiting in the ED for inpatient beds, in this case by establishment of a short‐stay medicine unit, is associated with a decrease in the interval that treat‐and‐release patients spend in the ED.
The potential clinical utility of a novel quantitative electroencephalographic (EEG)-based Brain Function Index (BFI) as a measure of the presence and severity of functional brain injury was studied ...as part of an independent prospective validation trial. The BFI was derived using quantitative EEG (QEEG) features associated with functional brain impairment reflecting current consensus on the physiology of concussive injury. Seven hundred and twenty adult patients (18-85 years of age) evaluated within 72 h of sustaining a closed head injury were enrolled at 11 U.S. emergency departments (EDs). Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score was 15 in 97%. Standard clinical evaluations were conducted and 5 to 10 min of EEG acquired from frontal locations. Clinical utility of the BFI was assessed for raw scores and percentile values. A multinomial logistic regression analysis demonstrated that the odds ratios (computed against controls) of the mild and moderate functionally impaired groups were significantly different from the odds ratio of the computed tomography (CT) postive (CT+, structural injury visible on CT) group (p = 0.0009 and p = 0.0026, respectively). However, no significant differences were observed between the odds ratios of the mild and moderately functionally impaired groups. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) demonstrated significant differences in BFI among normal (16.8%), mild TBI (mTBI)/concussed with mild or moderate functional impairment, (61.3%), and CT+ (21.9%) patients (p < 0.0001). Regression slopes of the odds ratios for likelihood of group membership suggest a relationship between the BFI and severity of impairment. Findings support the BFI as a quantitative marker of brain function impairment, which scaled with severity of functional impairment in mTBI patients. When integrated into the clinical assessment, the BFI has the potential to aid in early diagnosis and thereby potential to impact the sequelae of TBI by providing an objective marker that is available at the point of care, hand-held, non-invasive, and rapid to obtain.
The etiologic basis for sporadic forms of neurodegenerative diseases has been elusive but likely represents the product of genetic predisposition and various environmental factors. Specific ...gene-environment interactions have become more salient owing, in part, to the elucidation of epigenetic mechanisms and their impact on health and disease. The linkage between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and Parkinson's disease (PD) is one such association that currently lacks a mechanistic basis. Herein, we present preliminary blood-based metabolomic evidence in support of potential association between TBI and PD. Using untargeted and targeted high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry we identified metabolomic biomarker profiles in a cohort of symptomatic mild TBI (mTBI) subjects (
= 75) 3⁻12 months following injury (subacute) and TBI controls (
= 20), and a PD cohort with known PD (
= 20) or PD dementia (PDD) (
= 20) and PD controls (
= 20). Surprisingly, blood glutamic acid levels in both the subacute mTBI (increased) and PD/PDD (decreased) groups were notably altered from control levels. The observed changes in blood glutamic acid levels in mTBI and PD/PDD are discussed in relation to other metabolite profiling studies. Should our preliminary results be replicated in comparable metabolomic investigations of TBI and PD cohorts, they may contribute to an "excitotoxic" linkage between TBI and PD/PDD.
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