Genetics can explain RoJo's injuries:
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Some Athletes are Genetically Predisposed to Concussions
Saturday, November 3
Concussion study raises interesting questions
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Reuters
VIENNA -- Sports doctors say evidence suggests that some athletes may be genetically predisposed to Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) or concussion, but warn that the misuse of such information could harm athletes' careers.
These findings were discussed on Saturday by delegates attending a conference in Vienna organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation, the Olympic medical committee and FIFA, world soccer's governing body, to draw up international guidelines on concussion and how it should be treated.
Barry Jordan, Chief Medical Officer for the New York State Athletic Commission, said evidence that it may be possible to isolate genes showing if an athlete is vulnerable to TBI or concussion could create an ethical quagmire for sports doctors.
Although there is no single definition of the condition, a concussion usually refers to a disturbance of cerebral functions after a head injury resulting in a jarring of the brain.
"To date, two studies have suggested a genetic predisposition to the neurological consequences of TBI in sports," Jordan said.
He added that one study had shown boxers with a particular genotype were more likely to suffer from the effects of severe brain injury as their careers went on than those who did not have the genotype.
"This is the tip of the iceberg," Jordan told delegates, adding the genotype in question had already been linked with Alzheimer's disease.
"There are lots of issues which will evolve. We might identify genes which show whether an athlete will blow out their knees."
Jordan said this information was an ethical gray area, adding that if he knew an athlete had the genotype, he would advise them to have regular brain scans to check there was no damage, but would not stop them from practicing their sport.
"The major problem is keeping the information confidential," Jordan said. "Because on that basis for example they might be denied a contract."
Other speakers highlighted the ethical issues of allowing athletes to return to sport after suffering from concussion, adding that repeated injuries were more likely to cause serious brain injury, especially in those with a history of concussion.
James Kelly, Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, said he had developed basic tests to find out whether ice-hockey players with concussions were fit enough to continue with their careers.
"If I can push them in to symptoms in my presence I have a better feel for how they are going to be when they go back to the sport," Kelly said, adding that athletes were often far from objective in their assessment of their own health.
"That leaves you exposed to the whole problem of players telling you what they think you want to hear so that they can return to play," he said.
However, Kelly added that since there was no one definition of concussion or consensus on how long recovery could take, individual doctors were burdened with the responsibility of judging whether players should go back to the sports field.
"We need an organization to apply standards and provide recommendations to all sports," he said.
A spokesman for FIFA said the organization was trying to come up with a check list to issue to members that would allow doctors at a soccer match to diagnose concussions and gauge how severely a player had been injured.
"You need to be aware of the consequences -- if someone has lost consciousness even for a few seconds they should not be sent back to the field again," Jiri Dvorak, the chairman of FIFA's Medical Research and Assessment Centre, told Reuters.
Dvorak said an average of 1.4 cases of concussion occur in every 1,000 playing hours of top-flight football, according to results collected from a survey of injuries at 12 international FIFA tournaments.
"We consider this to be very low in relation to other sports," Dvorak said, but he added that FIFA still took seriously the attempt to reach a common definition of and guidelines for concussion.
"We are not just paying lip service here. There is a dedication to understand the medical problem, which has been partly neglected for a very long time." |
