Measuring Blunt Force Head Impacts in Athletes

• Published in: Military medicine Vol. 185; no. Supplement_1; pp. 190 - 196
• Main Authors: Bartsch, Adam, Dama, Rajiv, Alberts, Jay, Samorezov, Sergey, Benzel, Edward, Miele, Vincent, Shah, Alok, Humm, John, McCrea, Michael, Stemper, Brian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Oxford University Press 07.01.2020
• Subjects: Athletes - psychology; Athletes - statistics & numerical data; Boxing - injuries; Concussion; Football - injuries; Head - physiopathology; Head Injuries, Closed - classification; Head Injuries, Closed - etiology; Humans; Laboratories; Mouth Protectors; Sports - psychology; Sports - statistics & numerical data; Supplement; Weights and Measures - instrumentation; Weights and Measures - standards
• ISSN: 0026-4075; 1930-613X
• DOI: 10.1093/milmed/usz334

Abstract Introduction Although concussion continues to be a major source of acute and chronic injuries, concussion injury mechanisms and risk functions are ill-defined. This lack of definition has hindered efforts to develop standardized concussion monitoring, safety testing, and protective countermeasures. To overcome this knowledge gap, we have developed, tested, and deployed a head impact monitoring mouthguard (IMM) system. Materials and Methods The IMM system was first calibrated in 731 laboratory tests. Versus reference, Laboratory IMM data fit a linear model, with results close to the ideal linear model of form y = x + 0, R2 = 1. Next, during on-field play involving n = 54 amateur American athletes in football and boxing, there were tens of thousands of events collected by the IMM. A total of 890 true-positive head impacts were confirmed using a combination of signal processing and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke/National Institutes of Health Common Data Elements methods. Results The median and 99th percentile of peak scalar linear acceleration and peak angular acceleration were 20 and 50 g and 1,700 and 4,600 rad/s2, respectively. No athletes were diagnosed with concussion. Conclusions While these data are useful for preliminary human tolerance limits, a larger population must be used to quantify real-world dose response as a function of impact magnitude, direction, location, and accumulation. This work is ongoing.