Association between brain metabolites and head impact exposure measured with MRS in a cohort of high school American football athletes

Diagnosis and prognosis of sports-related concussion is challenging. In this prospective controlled clinical trial of 215 high school American football athletes, we evaluated relationships between brain metabolite and head impacts as a function of concussion diagnosis and wearing a jugular vein compression (JVC) collar. Changes in total choline between pre- and post-season, measured with MR spectroscopy, were positively correlated with mean g-force thresholds above 80g in athletes diagnosed with a concussion, suggesting choline may be a key metric of injury. Metabolite alterations were minimally affected by the JVC collar and only at mean g-force thresholds of 100, 110 and 120g.