Abstract
Both blast-induced traumatic brain injury (TBI) and sports-related concussion are occasionally considered to have similar injury mechanisms by which repeated head impacts cause chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Patients with the two conditions experience comparable CTE symptoms, such as headache, light-headedness, memory loss, confusion, attention deficits, difficulty balancing, aggression, anxiety, depression, etc. (1). Another common feature is tau protein deposition around cerebral blood vessels in the frontal cortex (2, 3). However, it should be noted that these symptoms are non-specific, and can be the results of many different brain insults such as TBI, stroke, chemically induced neurotoxicity, infection by pathogenic microbes (HIV virus, bacteria, etc.), brain tumors, and neurodegenerative diseases (Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, ALS, Huntingtons, etc.). Abnormal or hyper-phosphorylated tau protein deposition is also non-specific and represents only disruption and dysfunction of microtubules in neuronal cells that are experiencing progressive death and degeneration. Therefore, having similar mental symptoms and tau protein deposition in the same regions of the brain does not conclude that the same basic injury mechanism existed in both blast-induced and sports-related brain injuries.
Highlights
Injury Mechanism and Neuropathophysiology Concussion is one of the most common sports-related injuries, which involves approximately 270,000 cases each year in USA, mostly occurring in football, ice hockey, soccer, wrestling, and basketball players [4, 5]
The major mechanism of blast traumatic brain injury (TBI) may involve damage to the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and tiny cerebral blood vessels, which are caused by the blood surge moving quickly through large blood vessels to the brain from the torso [8]
Hyperemia, hemorrhage, and vasospasm might be the results of large-scale tiny cerebrovascular insults and BBB damage that occur globally throughout the brain [8], which will further trigger a pathophysiological cascade leading to progressive neuronal cell death, neural loss, and axonal degeneration in the brain
Summary
Injury Mechanism and Neuropathophysiology Concussion is one of the most common sports-related injuries, which involves approximately 270,000 cases each year in USA, mostly occurring in football, ice hockey, soccer, wrestling, and basketball players [4, 5]. Abnormal or hyper-phosphorylated tau protein deposition is non-specific and represents only disruption and dysfunction of microtubules in neuronal cells that are experiencing progressive death and degeneration.
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