MSU-B Studies Effects of Concussions on Athletes

DIANE COCHRAN - Billings Gazette Staff

A simple computer test is helping coaches and trainers ensure athletes who suffer concussions are fully healed before returning to competition.

"It's a neurologist in our back pocket," said Dr. Guy Schmidt, an orthopedic surgeon associated with St. Vincent Healthcare.

Schmidt spearheaded an effort to bring the screening program, called ImPACT, to athletes in the Billings area.

The basketball and soccer teams at Montana State University-Billings have implemented ImPACT, as have the basketball and football programs at Billings Central High School and Carbon County High School in Red Lodge.

"It takes all the guesswork out of knowing when an athlete is ready to return to play," said Patrick Hughes, head athletic trainer at MSU-B. "It's a completely objective way to rate concussions."

ImPACT works by comparing pre- and post-injury measurements of an athlete's brain function. Players are not allowed back on the court or field until their brain function has returned to its pre-injury status.

"It's good because then people can't lie about the severity of their concussions," said Lisa Jellum, a senior guard for the MSU-B Lady Yellowjackets basketball team.

Jellum and her teammates gathered in a campus computer lab recently to take the baseline ImPACT test. It measured their reaction time, visual acuity, memory and concentration.

In one portion of the test, a series of words were flashed on the screen. Players were then shown another series of words and asked to select the ones that had also appeared in the first series.

In another section, the names of colors -- such as green, red, and blue -- were shown. Players clicked the computer mouse when the color of the font matched the word, such as when the word "green" appeared in green letters.

In another part of the screening, a shape popped onto the screen. Test-takers examined a row of shapes across the top of the screen, and clicked on the one that matched the pop-up shape. Eventually, the row of shapes disappeared, forcing testers to select the location of the matching shape from memory.

Angie Lessard, a senior point guard for the Lady Yellowjackets, said the testing is a smart idea.

"You think you're okay" after you hit your head, Lessard said. "It's just your head and blah, blah, blah. But it is really serious."

And sometimes it is difficult to gauge the severity of a head injury, said Schmidt, the St. Vincent doctor.

"When you play sports and bruise your leg and it swells up and hurts, you lay off it," he said.

With a head injury, symptoms are not always so obvious.

Already, ImPACT has kept one MSU-B athlete on the sidelines. A soccer player who suffered a concussion earlier this year did not score high enough on her first post-injury screening to be returned to the game, Hughes said.

A second test a few days later indicated she was well enough to play.

"It would have been a judgment call the first time" without ImPACT, Hughes said. "With this, it made our decision for us."

By the numbers

n 300,000 sports-related concussions in the United States each year.

- 19 percent chance an athlete will suffer a concussion during any given season.

- 30 deaths in the past decade from Second Impact Syndrome, which occurs when an athlete suffers a blow to the head while recovering from a concussion.

- 68 Montana State University-Billings athletes screened with the ImPACT computer program, which helps determine when players can return to the game after suffering a concussion.

- 1 MSU-B athlete whose return to play after a concussion was delayed because an ImPACT test indicated she wasn't ready.

Sources: ImPACT, Montana State University-Billings

Contact Diane Cochran at dcochran@billingsgazette.com or 657-1287.

For more information about this article, please visit http://www.helenair.com/articles/2005/11/27/montana/f04112705_02.txt

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