Journal of neurotrauma
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Journal of neurotrauma · Jul 2020
Neuroinflammation Mediated by GMF Exacerbates Neuronal Injury in an in vitro Model of Traumatic Brain Injury.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the primary cause of death and disability affecting over 10 million people in the industrialized world. TBI causes a wide spectrum of secondary molecular and cellular complications in the brain. However, the pathological events are still not yet fully understood. ⋯ In addition, injured WT cells showed increased levels of oxidation product 4-hydroxynonenal and 8-oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine compared with injured GMF-KO cells. Further, we found that injured WT cells showed a significantly increased expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein, ionized calcium binding adaptor molecule 1, and phosphorylated ezrin/radixin/moesin proteins, and reduced microtubule associated protein expression compared with injured GMF-KO cells after injury. Collectively, our results demonstrate that GMF exacerbates the oxidative stress-mediated neuroinflammation that could be brought about by TBI-induced astroglial activation.
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Journal of neurotrauma · Jul 2020
Is Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury Associated with Adult Alcohol Misuse?
Evidence suggests that pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) may be causally related to alcohol misuse later in life; however, the nature and extent of the association has not been well described. This study examined the relationship between pediatric TBI and adult alcohol misuse in a population sample ≥20 years of age. We sought to determine (1) whether first self-reported incidence of TBI with loss of consciousness (LOC) before the age of 20 increased the risk for alcohol misuse later in life; and (2) whether sex, injury severity, and age at time of injury modified the association. ⋯ When controlling for sex, age, and race/ethnicity, reporting a first TBI with LOC before age 20 was associated with binge drinking only for those with mild TBI (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.32; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.00-1.74). Results also showed that those with first TBI with LOC occurring between the ages of 10 and 19 years were more likely to binge drink as adults than those first injured earlier in life, regardless of TBI severity. Further research is needed at both the epidemiological and pre-clinical levels to better understand this relationship.
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Journal of neurotrauma · Jul 2020
Multicenter StudyEvaluation of the Fear Avoidance Behavior after Traumatic Brain Injury Questionnaire.
Fear avoidance behavior is related to symptom persistence and disability in various health conditions, such as chronic pain. Fear avoidance behavior also may impact recovery from mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), but no measure of this construct has been psychometrically validated for the mTBI population. Adults who sustained an mTBI (n = 159) were recruited from three outpatient mTBI clinics. ⋯ Best fit to the unidimensional Rasch model was achieved after items were combined into three super items based on exploratory factor analysis and retaining the misfitting item χ2(6, n = 159) = 2.1, p = 0.06). The FAB-TBI appears to be a psychometrically sound measure of fear avoidance behavior after mTBI. Conversion tables are made available to convert scores into interval-level data for future research.
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Journal of neurotrauma · Jul 2020
The Cumulative Influence of Inflammatory Response Genetic Variation on Long-Term Neurobehavioral Outcomes following Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury Relative to Orthopedic Injury: An Exploratory Polygenic Risk Score.
The addition of genetic factors to prognostic models of neurobehavioral recovery following pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) may account for unexplained heterogeneity in outcomes. The present study examined the cumulative influence of candidate genes involved in the inflammatory response on long-term neurobehavioral recovery in children with early childhood TBI relative to children with orthopedic injuries (OI). Participants were drawn from a prospective, longitudinal study evaluating outcomes of children who sustained TBI (n = 67) or OI (n = 68) between the ages of 3 and 7 years. ⋯ Higher inflammatory response PRS were associated with more executive dysfunction and behavior problems in children with TBI but not in children with OI. The cumulative influence of inflammatory response genes as measured by PRS explained additional variance in long-term neurobehavioral outcomes, over and above well-established predictors and single candidate SNPs tested individually. The results suggest that some of the unexplained heterogeneity in long-term neurobehavioral outcomes following pediatric TBI may be attributable to a child's genetic predisposition to a greater or lesser inflammatory response to TBI.
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Journal of neurotrauma · Jul 2020
Observational StudyUsing Variance to Explore the Diagnostic Utility of Baseline Concussion Testing.
The Graded Symptom Checklist (GSC), Standardized Assessment of Concussion (SAC), Balance Error Scoring System (BESS), and King-Devick Test (KDT) are considered important components of concussion assessment. Whether baseline testing improves the diagnostic utility of these tests remains unclear. We performed an observational cohort study to investigate the within-subject and between-subjects variability of these tests over repeated assessments during two football seasons to examine whether baseline testing reduces variability in test performance. ⋯ A small, but significant, practice effect was observed for the BESS and KDT tests. When athletes are evaluated during a football season for concussion using the GSC, SAC, and BESS, comparing their scores to baseline performance is likely no more beneficial than comparing them to normative population data for identifying neurological changes associated with concussion. For the KDT, comparison to baseline testing is likely beneficial because of significantly higher between-subjects variability.