Doctors warn: Do not rely only on what young athletes say when managing c...( and sometimes loss of consciousness. ...),Health

"Generally, an athlete who sustains an initial concussion can fully recover as long as the brain has had time to heal before sustaining another hit," explained Micky Collins, Ph.D., study co-author and assistant director of the UPMC Sports Medicine Concussion Program. "The tricky part is that concussion signs and symptoms are not always straightforward and the effects and severity of the injury can be difficult to determine. Symptoms can typically occur with no visual indication by medical personnel and traditional neurodiagnostic tests such as CT, MRI and EEG are generally insensitive in measuring the subtle neurological changes following injury; thus, the need for careful clinical evaluation of symptoms in addition to objective neurocognitive testing."

Neurocognitive testing with ImPACT, as in the UPMC study, is utilized nationwide by more than 900 high schools, 250 colleges and universities, 125 professional sports teams, including the majority of NFL teams, 250 sports medicine clinics and numerous other national and international athletic organizations. ImPACT involves a 30-minute test battery that athletes complete on a laptop or desktop computer. It can precisely measure even the subtle effects of a concussion, such as decline in memory, visual motor skills, information processing speed and reaction time, as well as symptom levels. Athletes can take an individual pre-season baseline test whose data is stored for comparison to post-injury test scores, should an athlete sustain a concussion during the season.

"A concussed athlete should never be cleared for return to play until neurocognitive scores on tests such as ImPACT match pre-injury baseline scores and all reported symptoms have resolved both at rest and at exertion," stressed Dr. Collins.

"Other factors that especially concern us are related to information we've learned, with the aid of ImPACT, in numerous previously published UPMC
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Contact: Susan Manko
MankoSM@upmc.edu
412-647-3555
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
11-Sep-2006