Comprehensive concussion study could change game

More than 35,000 college athletes and cadets at U. S. service academies are helping researchers write a new chapter in the study and tracking of concussions.

With about $ 22 million in funding from the NCAA and Department of Defence, the students have agreed to be monitored over a period of years, even decades, to determine frequency, severity and cumulative effects of head injuries.

Though the project, run by a group of investigators who make up the Concussion Assessment, Research and Education Consortium, is less than a year old, the information scientists have already collected shows the potential. Baseline data has already been gathered on 6,500 students, about 225 of whom have suffered concussions and been evaluated.

“A year ago, if someone had said, ‘ I’ve got a data set with 20 to 25 concussions,’ you’d say that’s pretty good,” said Steve Broglio, associate professor at Michigan’s School of Kinesiology and director of the NeuroSport Research Laboratory. “To now say, ‘ I’ve got tenfold of that in Year 1,’ you’re looking at the possibility of having so many numbers by the end that we’ll be able to answer any question.”

Broglio is overseeing a branch of the study that looks at clinical effects of concussions — headaches, balance and memory.

Michael McCrea, director of brain injury research at the Medical College of Wisconsin, is doing more extensive testing in the “Advanced Research Core” will include blood work, MRIs and other scanning techniques, and athletes also will be equipped with head- impact sensors to give a better gauge of the magnitude and location of the hits.