This study suggests a relationship between head impact exposure, white matter diffusion measures, and cognition over the course of a single season, even in the absence of diagnosed concussion, in a cohort of college athletes. Further work is needed to assess whether such effects are short term or persistent.

Objective: To determine whether exposure to repetitive head impacts over a single season negatively affects cognitive performance in collegiate contact sport athletes.Methods: This is a prospective cohort study at 3 Division I National Collegiate Athletic Association athletic programs. Participants were 214 Division I college varsity football and ice hockey players who wore instrumented helmets that recorded the acceleration-time history of the head following impact, and 45 noncontact sport athletes. All athletes were assessed prior to and shortly after the season with a cognitive screening battery (ImPACT) and a subgroup of athletes also were assessed with 7 measures from a neuropsychological test battery.

This large outbreak of conjunctivitis on a college campus was caused by an atypical, unencapsulated strain of S. pneumoniae that was identical to strains that had caused outbreaks two decades earlier.

A report in 1984 on the success of zinc gluconate against common cold symptoms could not be confirmed in three subsequent studies, which are now known to have used formulations that inactivated zinc. A non-chelating formulation including glycine, which releases 93% of contained zinc into saliva, was tested in a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial in 73 young adults. Efficacy was recorded in symptom diaries using a symptom severity rating. Patients' symptoms first appeared 1.34 days prior to entry to the study in both groups. Disappearance of symptoms occurred after an additional 4.9 days for zinc-treated patients versus 6.1 days for placebo-treated patients. A difference was noted in the efficacy of treatment if it was started 1 day after symptom onset: cold duration was an additional 4.3 days in zinc-treated patients compared with 9.2 days for placebo-treated patients. Cough, nasal drainage and congestion were the symptoms most affected, and only mild side-effects were noted.

A collaborative study among the university health service, the dean's office, and the registrar's office examined the academic performance of 77 students who took medical withdrawals for mental health reasons from Dartmouth College during a 3-year period. In 71.4% of the cases, students withdrew from a term in progress; the remainder arranged to withdraw after they had completed a term but before starting a new term. Depression was a major factor in approximately half of the withdrawals. Grade point average improved significantly after return from the withdrawal, with a large jump in individual term averages occurring between the terms immediately preceding and immediately following return. We found no significant difference between the number of students who experienced disciplinary trouble before withdrawal and those who were disciplined afterward. Students who were depressed at the time of withdrawal did not fare as well academically upon return as those students who had not been depressed. The data suggest that procedures for handling mental health withdrawals and readmission are important ways in which the campus counseling center can support the university's academic mission.

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Purpose An outbreak of pneumococcal conjunctivitis occurred at Dartmouth College in 2002. We describe the clinical features, outcomes, and costs associated with this outbreak. Methods Six hundred ninety-eight students were diagnosed with conjunctivitis; culture of conjunctival discharge was obtained for 254. A screening protocol was used to evaluate 67 patients. A retrospective survey was offered to all 698 cases and follow-up clinical examination to all patients with culture-confirmed infection (n = 110). Local ophthalmology offices were contacted to develop a cost analysis. The college health service provided conjunctivitis data for nonoutbreak years. Results Of 67 patients evaluated using the screening protocol, findings associated with culture-confirmed Streptococcus pneumoniae conjunctivitis (P < 0.01) were red eye visible from 2 feet, any type of conjunctival discharge, obscuration of tarsal conjunctival blood vessels, and chemosis. Two hundred thirty-two students responded to our retrospective survey; 89% reported bilateral eye involvement; 96% received topical antibiotics and noted symptom improvement within 3 days of treatment. No ocular sequelae were identified as a result of this infection. No recurrent outbreaks have occurred at Dartmouth since the initial event. The estimated cost of this outbreak including evaluations, cultures, and antibiotics ranged from $66,468 to $120,583. Conclusions The ST448 strain of S. pneumoniae caused a disruptive outbreak of conjunctivitis at Dartmouth College. A screening protocol was effective at identifying culture-positive cases. Although most culture-positive patients experienced bilateral conjunctivitis, the clinical course was mild with quick resolution of symptoms after initiating antibiotics and no ocular sequelae.

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