Key result
Lower heart rate recovery and reduced GFR are linked to acute ACL injury in athletes.
Why the study?
Wearable technologies are increasingly used to study the autonomic nervous system's influence on training, recovery, and injury risk in athletes.
Do physiological monitoring and exercise biometric data detect changes associated with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury risk in female collegiate soccer players?
Cohort (n=8)
No
Do physiological monitoring and exercise biometric data detect changes associated with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury risk in female collegiate soccer players?
Physiological monitoring using wearable technology may detect imbalanced autonomic nervous system recovery and potential risk factors prior to ACL injury in athletes.
Biometric differences may flag ACL injury vulnerability in athletes; hypothesis-generating and requires prospective validation before practice change.
A growing number of studies utilizing wearable technologies are examining the influence of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) on intense training, recovery, and injury risk. Exercise biometric (EB) data were collected on collegiate, female soccer players during a preseason camp. One player sustained an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. Baseline anthropometric and EB data were compared to non-injured, position-matched teammates. All players had similar baseline testing. The injured athlete had a higher body mass index (BMI) and slower vision reaction time (RT). On the day of her injury (DOI), relative percentage heart rate recovery (tHRR) between intense training sets was calculated. Relative percentage tHRR was much lower for the injured athlete, indicating reduced recovery between training sets immediately prior to the injury. Also on DOI, the injured athlete had a lower glomerular filtration rate (GFR). In addition to BMI and RT differences, the lower relative percentage tHRR and GFR on the DOI observed for the injured athlete may reflect an imbalanced ANS recovery, and potentially to risk factors leading to her ACL injury.
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Detherage et al. (2021) conducted a cohort in Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury (n=8). Physiological fatigue and intense pre-season training vs. Uninjured teammates was evaluated on Exercise biometrics (heart rate recovery, peak heart rate, GFR) on the day of injury. An athlete who sustained an ACL injury exhibited higher baseline BMI, slower reaction time, lower heart rate recovery, and reduced glomerular filtration rate on the day of injury compared to uninjured teammates.
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