Identifying Factors Associated with Head Impact Kinematics and Brain Strain in High School American Football via Instrumented Mouthguards

• Repeated head impact exposure and concussions are common in American football. Identifying the factors associated with high magnitude impacts aids in informing sport policy changes, improvements to protective equipment, and better understanding of the brain’s response to mechanical loading. Recently, the Stanford Instrumented Mouthguard (MiG2.0) has seen several improvements in its accuracy in measuring head kinematics and its ability to correctly differentiate between true head impact events and false positives. Using this device, the present study sought to identify factors (e.g., player position, helmet model, direction of head acceleration, etc.) that are associated with head impact kinematics and brain strain in high school American football athletes. 116 athletes were monitored over a total of 888 athlete exposures. 602 total impacts were captured and verified by the MiG2.0’s validated impact detection algorithm. Peak values of linear acceleration, angular velocity, and angular acceleration were obtained from the mouthguard kinematics. The kinematics were also entered into a previously developed finite element model of the human brain to compute the 95th percentile maximum principal strain. Overall, impacts were (mean ± SD) 34.0 ± 24.3 g for peak linear acceleration, 22.2 ± 15.4 rad/s for peak angular velocity, 2979.4 ± 3030.4 rad/s2 for peak angular acceleration, and 0.262 ± 0.241 for 95th percentile maximum principal strain. Statistical analyses revealed that impacts resulting in Forward head accelerations had higher magnitudes of peak kinematics and brain strain than Lateral or Rearward impacts and that athletes in skill positions sustained impacts of greater magnitude than athletes in line positions. 95th percentile maximum principal strain was significantly lower in the observed cohort of high school football athletes than previous reports of collegiate football athletes. No differences in impact magnitude were observed in athletes with or without previous concussion history, in athletes wearing different helmet models, or in junior varsity or varsity athletes. This study presents novel information on head acceleration events and their resulting brain strain in high school American football from our advanced, validated method of measuring head kinematics via instrumented mouthguard technology.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Medicinteknik -- Annan medicinteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Medical Engineering -- Other Medical Engineering (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Brain injury

Concussion

Finite element model

Head acceleration

Head impact sensor

Helmet

Acceleration

Angular velocity

Kinematics

Angular acceleration

Head accelerations

Impact detection algorithm

Linear accelerations

Maximum principal strain

Mechanical loading

Novel information

Protective equipment

Football

adolescent

algorithm

Article

athlete

body position

brain concussion

brain depth stimulation

clinical article

cohort analysis

controlled study

data processing

finite element analysis

high school student

human

risk factor

social participation

validation study

biomechanics

brain

devices

electronic device

head

head injury

male

mouth protector

pathophysiology

physiology

school

sport injury

sports equipment

telemetry

United States

Athletic Injuries

Biomechanical Phenomena

Craniocerebral Trauma

Humans

Mouth Protectors

Schools

Wearable Electronic Devices

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