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 The results might provide a new tool for measuring the severity of
the “sub-concussive” brain impacts that athletes and others, like
soldiers, experience regularly, researchers say.
“We believe that it is possible that there may be long-term effects,
but we have no conclusive evidence currently,” said lead author
Dianne Langford of Temple University in Philadelphia.
“The changes are not clinically significant and in our study they
resolved after three weeks of rest,” Langford told Reuters Health by
email.
The researchers studied 29 Division I football players who
volunteered to wear special mouthguards during four full-contact
practices and one noncontact preseason practice in August of 2015.
The mouthguards contained electronics that measured the number and
magnitude of head impacts for each player.
The players also had eye exams before each practice began and after
the season was over.
The 29 players in the study experienced a total of nearly 1,200
sub-concussive head impacts over the five football practices, and
researchers divided players into low- and high-impact groups based
on how many hits they had taken.
Only seven players were in the low-impact group based on having
between 6 and 16 total head impacts. The rest, designated
high-impact players, each experienced between 41 and 96 hits to the
head.
There was no difference in the types or frequency of physical
symptoms reported by players in either group, the study team reports
in JAMA Ophthalmology.
But researchers found that players in the high-impact group had
gradual increases throughout the season in the “near point of
convergence” of their eyes, which is the closest point at which the
two eyes can view something clearly before double-vision occurs. The
changes plateaued after a while, and then resolved by three weeks
postseason.
Players in the low-impact group did not experience any changes in
near point of convergence.
“Any type of impact in a contact sport like football is going to be
common, however the significance of these impacts whether
individually or aggregate remains unknown,” said Dr. Andrew G. Lee
of the Blanton Eye Institute at Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas,
who coauthored an editorial accompanying the new findings.
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“Subconcussive injuries are subclinical and are thus either under
diagnosed or untreated,” Lee said in an email.
Their long-term health effects, and even the significance of
short-term changes in eye function, are unknown, he added.
Athletes with the most head impacts during the season may also have
been getting the most exercise and the least rest compared to other
athletes, which could have affected their eye function as well, the
editorial notes.
But, Lee said, “we need to balance our legitimate concerns for
safety against the benefits and joys of the sport. Individual
players and their families need to make a risk-benefit decision as
with any decisions in life.”
Improving helmet design and reducing unnecessary head trauma might
reduce the incidence of disease, Lee added.
“I can’t say that (players) should be concerned at this point, but
they should definitely be aware that these changes occur,” Langford
said. “Anyone who is concerned about these results should speak with
their neurologist, ophthalmologist or other physician.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1TEpVWM and http://bit.ly/1NsNJ3n JAMA
Ophthalmology, online May 12, 2016.
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