Article Text

Download PDFPDF
113
Stratification of recovery from concussion using an objective multi-factorial approach to neurocognitive and motor performance assessment
  1. Susan M Linder1,2,
  2. Andrew Russman2,3,4,
  3. Rick Figler2,4,
  4. Jason Cruickshank2,4,
  5. Bob Grey2,4,
  6. Maureen Lally2,
  7. Tanujit Dey1,5,
  8. Jay L Alberts1,2,3
  1. 1Cleveland Clinic Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cleveland, Ohio
  2. 2Cleveland Clinic Concussion Centre, Cleveland, Ohio
  3. 3Cleveland Clinic Department of Neurology, Cleveland, Ohio
  4. 4Cleveland Clinic Sports Health, Cleveland, Ohio
  5. 5Cleveland Clinic Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Cleveland, Ohio

Abstract

Objective To characterise neurologic impairment and recovery associated with concussion in youths and young adults using the Cleveland Clinic Concussion application (C3 app).

Design Retrospective observational study

Setting Concussion clinic at an academic medical centre

Participants 181 student-athletes aged 14–20 diagnosed with concussion by a Cleveland Clinic physician were included.

Intervention C3 data were collected pre-season and at least once post-injury. At least one clinical examination by a physician was obtained to characterise clinical impairments. Individuals were stratified into two groups based on recovery time: typical <21 days (n=97) or protracted 21+ days (n=84).

Outcome measures The following modules of the C3 app were administered across groups: 1) Graded symptom checklist (GSC); 2) Standardised Assessment of Concussion (SAC); 3) Trail Making Test; 4) Simple and Choice Reaction Time; 5) Processing Speed Test; 6) Biomechanical quantification of balance during the BESS.

Main results At baseline, both groups performed similarly on all modules. However, significant differences were evident at 21 days post-injury in the protracted recovery group with worse performance in: simple and choice reaction time (p<0.001), Trail Making Test B (p=0.01), Biomechanical quantification of BESS (p<0.05), and GSC (p=0.0001). No difference between the groups at 21 days was found in BESS error scores, SAC or processing speed.

Conclusions An approach that utilises objective and quantitative measures to characterise multiple aspects of neurocognitive and motor function are more sensitive than traditional measures of concussion assessment. These new outcomes provide value in the stratification of patients and their potential time to recovery.

Competing interests JLA and SML have authored intellectual property associated with the mobile application presented in this study. The remaining authors declare no competing interest.

None.

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.