In a follow-up study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, 42 football players from two Greater Cincinnati high schools participated. Twenty-one athletes from St. Xavier High School wore the collar during a competitive season. They were tested before play to make sure the lightweight, c-shaped neck collar fit properly. The other half of athletes participating in the study were from Moeller High School. Those 21 players did not wear the collar.
All of the athletes’ helmets were outfitted with accelerometers to track hits sustained during the pre-and post-season. Researchers used advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, including diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), to determine the efficacy of the collar to prevent structural changes to the brain. The results of this larger study showed similar protective effects.
“The results of the studies demonstrate a potential approach to protecting the brain from changes sustained within a competitive football and hockey season, as evidenced by brain imaging,” said Myer. “We still have more data analysis and investigation to do, but this device could be a real game-changer in helping athletes.”
This study follows previously published work by Myer regarding “brain slosh” and theories on how altitude influences concussions in football. Many football-related concussions are believed to occur because the brain doesn’t fit tightly in the skull. Cerebral blood flow rises at higher altitudes, causing the brain to fit tighter inside the skull, thus reducing the risk of a concussion. Historical approaches to protect the brain from outside the skull such as helmets have not been effective in reducing internal injury to the brain.
David Smith, PhD, co-author in the studies, researched bighorn (head-ramming) sheep and woodpeckers because both animals routinely tolerate high-speed cranium collisions with no adverse impact. A head-on collision between two rams can be 10 times greater than that of two football players; a woodpecker’s impact against a tree is 20 times greater.
The migration patterns of head-ramming sheep show they are hitting at high altitudes. With woodpeckers, they have a long tongue that wraps around the top of their head lassoing the jugular vein, which increases blood volume creating a natural bubble wrap to keep the brain from sloshing.
Q30 Innovations designed the neck collar and provided funding for the research. Performance Sports Group has licensed the technology from Q30 for use in sports worldwide and applied for FDA approval to market the device.
Smith has a financial interest in the results of the current research.
The study includes collaboration with the Pediatric Neuroimaging Research Consortium, and the Neurology Division, Radiology Division, and the Biostatistics and Epidemiology Department at Cincinnati Children’s.
—By Shannon Kettler