Concussions suffered on the playing field will not cause permanent brain damage if treated appropriately, Vanderbilt University experts said during a recent symposium sponsored by the Vanderbilt Program in Molecular Medicine (VPMM).
The seminar included a presentation by Vicky Morgan, Ph.D., associate professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences at the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science and Biomedical Engineering, who is using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate the consequences of sports concussions.
Most concussions cannot be identified on standard computerized tomography (CT) or MRI scans because they do not affect the structure of the brain, but rather how the brain functions, Morgan explained.
New MRI methods may be able to identify some of these functional changes. One exciting area of research involves visualizing the response of blood vessels in the brain to stimulation, such as an injury. This measure is called cerebrovascular reactivity, or CVR.
Morgan and her colleagues have detected increased CVR in the brains of athletes who have had a recent concussion. This indicates that the brain has become hypersensitive to both physical and mental stimulation, sometimes resulting in the severe headaches associated with concussion.
For now, the researchers said they are striving to better understand the long-term consequences of concussion, improve diagnostic testing, and improve sports equipment to prevent concussions.
VPMM is a clinical enrichment program designed to expose Ph.D. students and post-doctoral fellows to clinical problems as well as clinical and translational research during their training.
