People who sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI), including concussion, may soon know if they are likely to develop Parkinson’s disease or a long-term memory impairment, thanks to a ground-breaking University of Adelaide study.
FIND-TBI is looking for 600 people from South Australia who have had a TBI at some time during their life – 300 who have had a concussion, and 300 with a more severe head injury.
Researchers will use state-of-the-art brain scans, along with biomarker analysis and machine learning, to compare the brains of TBI sufferers with those of healthy individuals and people with established Parkinson’s disease to provide a more accurate diagnosis.
Project lead, Associate Professor Lyndsey Collins-Praino from the University of Adelaide, said the FIND-TBI study focused on identifying the factors in the brain that increase the risk of neurodegenerative disease after a TBI.
“The most important thing to appreciate is that traumatic brain injury is not an acute event, it is an ongoing disease,” Associate Professor Collins-Praino said.
“If you have experienced a TBI and you ask a neurologist what your recovery might look like, or if you are at an increased risk of getting Parkinson’s disease or having a long-term memory impairment, the best they can do at the moment is provide an average percentage figure.
“By having these multi-faceted variables, looking at different severities and time-points after a TBI, and comparing with healthy people and those with established diagnoses of Parkinson’s Disease, we hope to be able to undercover the factors in the brain that predict the risk of long-term illnesses.
“We’re ultimately hoping to alter the way that clinical diagnosis and prognosis for survivors of traumatic brain injury is done.”
Five to 15 per cent of all dementia cases are estimated to be related to TBI, while a concussion – which is a minor brain injury caused by a bump, blow or jolt to the head – increases the risk of Parkinson’s disease by about 56 per cent. A more severe injury increases that risk by over 80 per cent.
Concussions account for about 80 per cent of all brain injuries.
“THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO APPRECIATE IS THAT TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY IS NOT AN ACUTE EVENT, IT IS AN ONGOING DISEASE.”
-Associate Professor Lyndsey Collins-Praino
Major sporting codes in Australia have taken steps to treat concussion more seriously, with the AFL and NRL increasing the amount of time players who have suffered a head knock must be sidelined before they are allowed to return to play.
“Even for individuals who recover in the short-term, there’s still a potential risk of these long-term degenerative outcomes,” Associate Professor Collins-Praino said.
“Right now, however, we have no idea who those players are that are at risk.
“Studies like FIND-TBI are critical to shedding light on who is at increased risk, both in sports and in the general population.
“That will then have major implications about when players can return to play or who may need longer follow-up after an injury, which could potentially help the leagues manage risk more than what they are doing right now.”
Participants in the study will take part in at least two sessions.
The first session will consist of a cognitive and motor test, and several questionnaires to provide information about the injury and other lifestyle variables.
The second session will involve participants having an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan at the Clinical Research Imaging Centre at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), where they will also provide blood and saliva samples for biomarker analysis.
An optional third session will involve a PET (positron emission tomography) scan, which is an imaging test that can help reveal the metabolic or biochemical function of a person’s tissues and organs.
These PET scans in particular will look at levels of the brain chemical dopamine, as well as inflammation within the brain.
The project received $1,987,160 in funding from the Federal Government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).
To register your interest in participating in the study, visit http://borrowmybrain.org/tbi , or for more information, visit https://health.adelaide.edu.au/our-research/find-tbi.
