Background: National Football League (NFL) players are exposed to multiple head collisions during their careers. Increasing awareness of the adverse long-term effects of repetitive head trauma has raised substantial concern among players, medical professionals, and the general public. Objective: To determine whether low perfusion in specific brain regions on neuroimaging can accurately separate professional football players from healthy controls.

Method: A cohort of retired and current NFL players ( n = 161) were recruited in a longitudinal study starting in 2009 with ongoing interval follow up. A healthy control group ( n = 124) was separately recruited for comparison. Assessments included medical examinations, neuropsychological tests, and perfusion neuroimaging with single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Perfusion estimates of each scan were quantified using a standard atlas. We hypothesized that hypoperfusion particularly in the orbital frontal, anterior cingulate, anterior temporal, hippocampal, amygdala, insular, caudate, superior/mid occipital, and cerebellar sub-regions alone would reliably separate controls from NFL players. Cerebral perfusion differences were calculated using a one-way ANOVA and diagnostic separation was determined with discriminant and automatic linear regression predictive models. Drajver toka na tl494.

Results: NFL players showed lower cerebral perfusion on average ( p. INTRODUCTION The current public dialogue regarding the possible risks of repetitive head trauma playing football is not unlike the sport itself, with intense exchanges of opposing perspectives [].

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The genesis of this recent debate was the discovery of neuropsychiatric symptoms linked to a distinct neuropathological entity in former National Football League (NFL) players, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) []. Microsoft visio 2007 serial key tutorial cara instal debian. Noticeably lacking in this dialogue are assertions weighted in data from living professional football players. Several small studies have described structural and functional brain abnormalities in this group.

One study of 28 former NFL players found lower hippocampal volumes in those with a history of concussion leading to loss of consciousness compared to 27 controls []. This same cohort was found to have white matter tract abnormalities on diffusion tensor imaging correlating to increased symptoms of depression [].

A separate functional MRI study of 54 retired NFL players compared to 53 controls found hypoconnectivity and hyperactivation in the frontal lobes suggestive of executive dysfunction []. Other studies have shown increased structural abnormalities [] and neuropsychiatric deficits in NFL players. A study of 30 retired players found a lifetime history of concussions correlated to increased depressive symptoms on the Beck Depression Inventory II test []. In a larger group of 1,044 former players surveyed, the increased risk of depression persists at least up to 9 years after retirement [] and this association was independent of declining physical health.

Currently, there is a relative lack of data on i) What regions are neurophysiologically impaired in living NFL players compared to healthy controls; ii) How well these brain abnormalities distinguish possible repetitive concussive and subconcussive pathology in NFL players from healthy individuals; and iii) What specific brain areas are most predictive of such a classification. The purpose of this work is to address these questions in a large NFL cohort with functional imaging data and predictive data analytics. We specifically hypothesize that areas of abnormally low cerebral perfusion on single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging in NFL players compared to controls will reliably separate these groups with high accuracy. Study participants Starting in 2009, we recruited a cohort of retired and current NFL players ( n = 161; mean age = 52 ± 14.2 years) as described in prior work [] along with a control group of healthy individuals ( n = 124; mean age = 44 ± 16.6 years, M:F 44%:56%).

Players were recruited from 27 teams and all positions (Integ Review IRB Certificate Number: 004). All recruitment was done in accordance with Institutional Review Board approval. Inclusion criteria were being on an active NLF roster for a minimum of 1 year. Exclusion criteria were any subjects that could not discontinue psychoactive medications for an appropriate period prior to functional neuroimaging. Each study participant was interviewed by a board certified psychiatrist, completed a 315 intake questionnaire of mental and physical health, and was given either the Microcog Assessment of Cognitive Functioning [] or WebNeuro [] computerized neuropsychological battery.