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Narrative review evaluates neuroimaging patterns of repetitive head impacts and mild traumatic brain injury in pediatrics and adults, highlighting key developmental differences.
Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) or concussion results from a bump or blow to the head followed by clinical symptoms. In contrast, repetitive head impacts (RHI) in sports result from a bump or blow to the head but are not accompanied by acute clinical symptoms. Neither RHI nor mTBI is detectable with traditional neuroimaging. Additionally, pediatric populations remain understudied in this field. Further research in pediatric populations exposed to mTBI/RHI is essential due to ongoing neurological development. This review aims to: (1) evaluate differences in neuroimaging findings in pediatrics and adults, (2) compare differences between RHI findings and mTBI findings within pediatrics, and (3) compare adult and pediatric studies across multiple modalities using the most current neuroimaging literature in the field of pediatric head injury. This narrative review will provide insight into future research directions of the field and potentially inform clinical considerations to be made in the future.
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Bell et al. (2025) studied this question.
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