REPIMPACT - a prospective longitudinal multisite study on the effects of repetitive head impacts in youth soccer

Koerte, Inga K.; Bahr, Roald; Filipčík, Peter; Gooijers, Jolien; Leemans, Alexander; Lin, Alexander P.; Tripodis, Yorghos; Shenton, Martha E.; Sochen, Nir; Swinnen, Stephan P.; Pasternak, Ofer

doi:10.1007/s11682-021-00484-x

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 40 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In the USA, the DIAGNOSE CTE and Concussion Legacy Foundation (91) projects are currently investigating the association between contact sports players (NFL, rugby, hockey, soccer) and CTE (34). A prospective study in the UK (HEADING) and the multinational REPIMACT study will examine a potential link between soccer players and dementia (84,85). The results of these studies will be highly influential guiding the future regulation of all types of contact sports.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Football and Dementia: Understanding the Link

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Football, also known as soccer or association football, is popular but has a potential link with dementia developing in retired players. The FA and soccer regulators in the USA have imposed guidelines limiting players exposure to heading, despite controversy whether this dementia is caused by heading the ball, a form of mild repetitive head injury (RHI), over many years. Substantial data exist showing that many ex-North American Football players develop a specific neurodegenerative disease: chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the neuropathological disorder of boxers. In the United Kingdom evidence for the neuropathological basis of footballers' dementia has been slow to emerge. A 2017 study revealed that in six ex-soccer players four had CTE with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and two had AD. A 2019 study showed that ex-footballers were 3.5 times more likely to die from dementia or other neuro-degenerative diseases than matched controls. We argue that in childhood and adolescence the brain is vulnerable to heading, predicated on its disproportionate size and developmental immaturity. RHI in young individuals is associated with early neuroinflammation, a potential trigger for promoting neurodegeneration in later life. Evidence is available to support the guidelines limiting heading for players of all ages, while professional and non-players should be included in prospective studies to investigate the link between soccer and dementia.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Football and Dementia: Understanding the Link

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Highlights of this consortium are featured in an article in this issue. The REPIMPACT Consortium, started in 2017, focused on adolescent soccer players, including neuroimaging, blood biomarkers, and neurobehavioral assessments at 6 sites across the European Union and Israel (Koerte et al, 2021).…”

Section: Funding Trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Neuroimaging in Evolving TBI Research and Clinical Practice

Dennis

Keleher

Tate

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Neuroimaging technologies such as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been widely adopted in the clinical diagnosis and management of traumatic brain injury (TBI), particularly at the more acute and severe levels of injury. Additionally, a number of advanced applications of MRI have been employed in TBI-related clinical research with great promise, and researchers have used these techniques to better understand underlying mechanisms, progression of secondary injury and tissue perturbation over time, and relation of focal and diffuse injury to later outcome. However, the acquisition and analysis time, the cost of these and other imaging modalities, and the need for specialized expertise have represented historical barriers in extending these tools in clinical practice. While group studies are important in detecting patterns, heterogeneity among patient presentation and limited sample sizes from which to compare individual level data to well-developed normative data have also played a role in the limited translatability of imaging to wider clinical application. Fortunately, the field of TBI has benefitted from increased public and scientific awareness of the prevalence and impact of TBI, particularly in head injury related to recent military conflicts and sport-related concussion. This awareness parallels an increase in federal funding in the United States and other countries allocated to investigation in these areas. In this article we summarize funding and publication trends since the mainstream adoption of imaging in TBI to elucidate evolving trends and priorities in the application of different techniques and patient populations. We also review recent and ongoing efforts to advance the field through promoting reproducibility, data sharing, big data analytic methods, and team science. Finally, we discuss international collaborative efforts to combine and harmonize neuroimaging, cognitive, and clinical data, both prospectively and retrospectively. Each of these represent unique, but related, efforts that facilitate closing gaps between the use of advanced imaging solely as a research tool and the use of it in clinical diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment planning and monitoring.

show abstract

“…Multimodal studies have a critical role to play, however, in this review, we identified a limited number of studies using multiple methods to date. Therefore, it is recommended that future studies combine biofluid markers with other methods that can reveal the mechanisms of pathology following RSHI exposure, such as combining neuro-imaging and sensitive and informative measures of cognition and motor control [18], and that imaging methods are multi-modal (e.g., [134,135]).…”

Section: Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

The use of biofluid markers to evaluate the consequences of sport-related subconcussive head impact exposure: a scoping review

Lember,

Ntikas,

Mondello

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Amidst growing concern about the safety of sport-related repetitive subconcussive head impacts (RSHI), biofluid markers may provide sensitive, informative, and practical assessment of the effects of RSHI exposure. Objective: This scoping review aimed to systematically examine the extent, nature, and quality of available evidence from studies investigating the effects of RSHI on biofluid markers, to identify gaps and to formulate guidelines to inform future research. Methods: PRISMA extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines were adhered to. The protocol was pre-registered through publication. MEDLINE, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, OpenGrey and two clinical trial registries were searched (until 30th March 2022) using descriptors for subconcussive head impacts, biomarkers, and contact sports. Included studies were assessed for risk of bias and quality. Results: Seventy-nine research publications were included in the review. Forty-nine studies assessed the acute effects, 23 semi-acute and 26 long-term effects of RSHI exposure. The most studied sports were American football, boxing and soccer, and the most investigated markers were (in ascending order): S100 calcium-binding protein beta (S100B), tau, neurofilament light (NfL), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), neuron-specific enolase (NSE), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), phosphorylated tau (p-tau), ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1), and hormones. High or moderate bias was found in most studies, and marker-specific conclusions were subject to heterogeneous and limited evidence. Although the evidence is weak, some biofluid markers – such as NfL – appeared to show promise. More markedly, S100B was found to be problematic when evaluating the effects of RSHI in sport. Conclusion: Considering the limitations of the evidence-base revealed by this first review dedicated to systematically scoping the evidence of biofluid marker levels following RSHI exposure, the field is evidently still in its infancy. As a result, any recommendation and application is premature. Although some markers show promise for the assessment of brain health following RSHI exposure, future large standardized and better-controlled studies are needed to determine biofluid markers’ utility.

show abstract

REPIMPACT - a prospective longitudinal multisite study on the effects of repetitive head impacts in youth soccer

Cited by 8 publications

References 40 publications

Football and Dementia: Understanding the Link

Football and Dementia: Understanding the Link

The Role of Neuroimaging in Evolving TBI Research and Clinical Practice

The use of biofluid markers to evaluate the consequences of sport-related subconcussive head impact exposure: a scoping review

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About