Background. Concussion is an important public health problem. The difficulty in recognizing mild concussions and the significant risk for repeat injury make early detection critical to the management of the concussed athlete. Since the 1990s, the use of neuropsychological tests has helped to measure cognitive deficits from sports-related concussion more objectively. Given the cost and limited availability of these tests, more user-friendly tools are needed. / Objectives. (1) Develop and evaluate the capacity of a new user-friendly neurocognitive tool called the McGill ACE to detect concussion in college athletes. (2) Compare the sensitivity of the McGill ACE to a formal neuropsychological test battery (NHL battery) for detection of concussion. (3) Examine individual variations of post-concussion symptoms, in number and severity, when concussed athletes are compared to their own baseline result. (4) Evaluate whether the McGill ACE results differ according to gender. / Design. Prospective study. / Subjects. 313 athletes from the men's and women's varsity teams at McGill University: 144 football players, 75 ice hockey players, 65 soccer players, 19 basketball players, and 10 men's volleyball players. / Interventions. On the pre-season exam, each athlete underwent the McGill ACE evaluation for a baseline measurement. The football and men's ice hockey players were also evaluated with the NHL test battery before contact began. During the sports season, only the football and men's ice hockey players were evaluated with both test batteries within 3 days of a concussion. / Main results. The McGill ACE showed as significant sensitivity as the formal neuropsychological battery (the NHL battery) in detecting cognitive problems in a group of concussed college athletes. Post-concussion symptoms significantly increased their total score in number and severity after a concussion, and the appearance of some specific symptoms were significantly associated with a new concussive injury. Finally, this study confirmed gender differences on a test that may involve visual-spatial strategy. / Conclusion. The McGill ACE is a valid neurocognitive test to detect concussion and demonstrates the importance of evaluating PCS. This study underscored the importance of comparing the results of neurocognitive testing to each athlete's baseline result, and the even greater importance of such a comparison when men and women are included in the same group.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.85082 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Leclerc, Suzanne, 1962- |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Division of Surgical Research.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002166661, proquestno: AAINR06318, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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