New Tool Takes Guesswork out of Concussions

By DIANE COCHRAN
Of The 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.

No more guesswork

"It takes all the guesswork out of knowing when an athlete is ready to return to play," said Patrick Hughes, head athletic trainer at MSUBillings.
"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-Billings Lady
Yellowjackets basketball team.

Baseline ImPACT testing

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 was 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 OK" 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."

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

For more information about this article, please visit http://www.billingsgazette.com/newdex.php?display=rednews/2005/11/26/build/local/35-concussions.inc

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