Journal of neurotrauma
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Journal of neurotrauma · May 2016
Performance of male and female C57BL/6J mice on motor and cognitive tasks commonly used in pre-clinical traumatic brain injury research.
To date, clinical trials have failed to find an effective therapy for victims of traumatic brain injury (TBI) who live with motor, cognitive, and psychiatric complaints. Pre-clinical investigators are now encouraged to include male and female subjects in all translational research, which is of particular interest in the field of neurotrauma given that circulating female hormones (progesterone and estrogen) have been demonstrated to exert neuroprotective effects. To determine whether behavior of male and female C57BL6/J mice is differentially impaired by TBI, male and cycling female mice were injured by controlled cortical impact and tested for several weeks with functional assessments commonly employed in pre-clinical research. ⋯ Female mice were generally more active, as evidenced by greater distance traveled in the first exposure to the open field, greater distance in the y-maze, and faster swimming speeds in the MWM. Statistical analysis showed that variability in all behavioral data was no greater in cycling female mice than it was in male mice. These data all suggest that with careful selection of tests, procedures, and measurements, both sexes can be included in translational TBI research without concern for effect of hormones on functional impairments or behavioral variability.
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Journal of neurotrauma · Apr 2016
Additional Post-Concussion Impact Exposure May Affect Recovery in Adolescent Athletes.
Repeat concussion has been associated with risk for prolonged and pronounced clinical recovery in athletes. In this study of adolescent athletes, we examined whether an additional head impact within 24 h of a sports-related concussion (SRC) is associated with higher symptom burden and prolonged clinical recovery compared with a single-injury group. Forty-two student-athletes (52% male, mean age = 14.9 years) diagnosed with an SRC in a concussion clinic were selected for this study: (1) 21 athletes who sustained an additional significant head impact within 24 h of the initial injury (additional-impact group); (2) 21 single-injury athletes, age and gender matched, who sustained only one discrete concussive blow to the head (single-injury group). ⋯ The additional-impact group also had a significantly longer LOR compared with the single-injury group. These findings provide preliminary, hypothesis-generating evidence for the importance of immediate removal from play following an SRC to protect athletes from re-injury, which may worsen symptoms and prolong recovery. The retrospective study design from a specialized clinical sample points to the need for future prospective studies of the relationship between single- and additional-impact injuries on symptom burden and LOR.
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Journal of neurotrauma · Apr 2016
Traumatic Brain Injury Severity Affects Neurogenesis in Adult Mouse Hippocampus.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been proven to enhance neural stem cell (NSC) proliferation in the hippocampal dentate gyrus. However, various groups have reported contradictory results on whether TBI increases neurogenesis, partially due to a wide range in the severities of injuries seen with different TBI models. To address whether the severity of TBI affects neurogenesis in the injured brain, we assessed neurogenesis in mouse brains receiving different severities of controlled cortical impact (CCI) with the same injury device. ⋯ Severe TBI increased neurogenesis at all three stages. Our data suggest that the severity of injury affects adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus, and thus it may partially explain the inconsistent results of different groups regarding neurogenesis following TBI. Further understanding the mechanism of TBI-induced neurogenesis may provide a potential approach for using endogenous NSCs to protect against neuronal loss after trauma.
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Journal of neurotrauma · Apr 2016
Recovery from Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Previously Healthy Adults.
This prospective longitudinal study reports recovery from mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) across multiple domains in a carefully selected consecutive sample of 74 previously healthy adults. The patients with MTBI and 40 orthopedic controls (i.e., ankle injuries) completed assessments at 1, 6, and 12 months after injury. Outcome measures included cognition, post-concussion symptoms, depression, traumatic stress, quality of life, satisfaction with life, resilience, and return to work. ⋯ A large percentage of the subgroup who had persistent symptoms had a modifiable psychological risk factor at 1 month (i.e., depression, traumatic stress, and/or low resilience), and at 6 months, they had greater post-concussion symptoms, fatigue, insomnia, traumatic stress, and depression, and worse quality of life. All of the control subjects who had mild post-concussion-like symptoms at 12 months also had a mental health problem (i.e., depression, traumatic stress, or both). This illustrates the importance of providing evidence-supported treatment and rehabilitation services early in the recovery period.
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Journal of neurotrauma · Apr 2016
Agreement between High School Athletes and their Parents on Reporting Athletic Events and Concussion Symptoms.
An enhanced understanding of agreement levels between adolescents and parents for reporting athletic events and symptoms can help inform surveillance systems as well as clinical and epidemiological investigations of sports-related concussions. We sought to quantify agreement levels between high school athletes and parents for reporting: (1) number of games; (2) number of practices; (3) occurrence of an injury resulting in any concussion symptoms; and (4) presence of each specific symptom on the date of that injury among high school boys' football and girls' soccer athletes playing in Autumn 2012 in Washington State. There was substantial agreement on reporting the number of athletic events. ⋯ Overall, athletes reported greater severity of symptoms than parents did; notably, no difference in mean symptom scores was found when the athlete had a history of concussion. Agreement levels were greater when information was ascertained within 1 week of injury than when it was obtained later than 1 week. Including both athletes' and parents' reports of sports-related events and ascertaining information as soon as possible after injury are important considerations in designing injury surveillance systems.