Isometric Cervical Muscle Strength Does Not Affect Head Impact Kinematics in High School Boys’ Lacrosse

Abstract

A growing topic in research is that of cervical strength to potentially mitigate head impact kinematics (HIK) and concussion risk. The purpose of this research was two-fold: (a) Assess the effects of isometric cervical muscle strength (ICMS) on HIK in high school boys’ lacrosse, and (b) investigate the relationship between cervical anthropometrics and ICMS, to create greater feasibility to approximate ICMS. All participants wore accelerometers during the season, and had their ICMS measured. No significant differences existed among ICMS classifications and HIK measures (p > .05). Cervical circumference showed a positive, moderately strong relationship with ICMS in extension (r = .63, p = .02). Our findings do not support previous research that has identified ICMS as a modifiable risk factor for mitigating HIK.

The Use of Wearable Sensor Technology to Detect Shock Impacts in Sports and Occupational Settings: A Scoping Review

“…Thus, the final extraction includes papers in the sports domain only. Of the 34 full-text papers included from the sports domain, 33 were peer-reviewed journal articles [ 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 ], and one was a conference abstract [ 64 ]. The included papers are listed in Table 1 with the following information included: author(s), year of publication, type of sport, study design, study aims, main outcome measure, population, type(s) of wearable sensor technology and placement of sensor, additional technology for validation, and key findings.…”

“…The main reason for adding these measurement technologies was that the studies had a single intervention design, with validation of the data collected from the wearable sensor technologies as part of their main purpose. For studies concerning head impacts in invasion and team sports, camera recordings were added in seven of the included studies [ 36 , 40 , 41 , 48 , 53 , 54 , 58 ]. The combined use of wearable technology and other technologies, in many cases representing current gold standards, will be discussed in detail in the last section of this paper where identified knowledge gaps are addressed.…”

“…Wearable sensors for assessments of head impacts are available in several systems; they are embedded in instrumented helmets, headbands, mouthguards, and skin patches [ 89 , 90 ]. Of the ten studies included in the data material, skin patches (xPatch) were used in four studies [ 36 , 41 , 54 , 58 ], instrumented helmets (GForce Tracker and SpeedFlex/HIT) were used in five studies [ 36 , 40 , 42 , 45 , 51 ], a headband (SIM-G) was used in one study [ 48 ], and finally MVTrak, with a sensor placed in the ear canal, was used in one study [ 53 ] (number summarizes to eleven, as the study by Cortes et al [ 36 ] utilized xPatch for females and GForce Tracker for males). Regardless of system, it is important to notice that the accelerations captured represent a combination of true head impacts—such as collisions or hitting the ground—and false detected impacts stemming from movement [ 39 , 41 , 91 ], e.g., change of direction, jumping, and decelerations.…”

“…Of the remaining designs, nine studies were prospective cohort studies on invasion and team sports where participants were followed over one or more seasons. Eight of these studies investigated head impacts [ 36 , 40 , 42 , 45 , 48 , 51 , 54 , 58 ] and one study investigated whole body impacts [ 39 ]. In addition, two studies investigated head impacts in a laboratory using video recordings to verify impacts measured by the wearable sensors [ 41 , 53 ].…”

The Effects of Headgear in High School Girls’ Lacrosse

“…Similar to prior research, 4,6,9,19 we limited our analyses to impacts !20g to remove low-acceleration events (10-19g) commonly associated with normal and expected physical activities of game play (eg, jumping, hard stops, cuts, etc) and unlikely to result in deleterious neurophysiological changes. Consistent with prior research, 4,6,9,15 an impact was verified if the following criteria were met: (1) linear acceleration !20g, (2) player was identified on the field, (3) player was in the camera's view, and (4) the impact mechanism could be clearly identified.…”