Explore the cutting-edge insights on how biofluid markers are revolutionizing our understanding of subconcussive head impacts in sports, a pivotal step in advancing neurotrauma surgery and athlete safety.
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The Use of Biofluid Markers to Evaluate the Consequences of Sport-Related Subconcussive Head Impact Exposure: A Scoping Review.
Lember et al., Sports Med Open 2024
DOI: 10.1186/s40798-023-00665-6
Summary of Scoping Review on Biofluid Markers and Repetitive Subconcussive Head Impacts (RSHI)
What’s New: This scoping review is the first systematic examination of the effects of RSHI on biofluid markers in sports, aiming to assess the current evidence and guide future research.
Importance: As concerns about the safety of RSHI in sports grow, biofluid markers are considered for assessing brain health. This review identifies the potential of certain markers and highlights the need for more rigorous research.
Contribution to Literature: The review included 79 studies, with a focus on acute (49 studies), semi-acute (23 studies), and long-term (26 studies) effects of RSHI. The sports most studied were American football, boxing, and soccer. The biofluid markers investigated included S100B, tau, NfL, GFAP, NSE, BDNF, p-tau, UCH-L1, and hormones. Findings suggest high or moderate bias in most studies, with limited and heterogeneous evidence. Notably, NfL showed promise as a biofluid marker, while S100B was problematic for assessing RSHI effects.
Conclusion: The field is in its early stages, and current evidence is too weak to recommend the use of biofluid markers for RSHI assessment in sports. The review calls for future research to be larger in scale, standardized, and better controlled to establish the utility of biofluid markers.