Doctors now using pre-season brain scans to monitor concussions in athletes

We know from studies that athletes are more prone to have a concussion. We also know that doctors still really don’t know a lot about them. So that’s why local doctors are taking testing to the next level by starting to monitor athletes at a very younger age. Yeah. Just about two weeks ago, Bucs hall of Famer Warren Sapp announced that he’s going to donate his brain to CTE research. He thinks it’s time for the NFL to get real about the dangers of concussions.

I decided I wanted to pledge my brain when I got an email from Fred Willis that had quotes from NFL owners. And I mean down the line you can see them. There is no correlation between the football, CTE, suicides, and all of this foolish stuff that. I mean, where are you getting this information from? And then spewing it out as if it’s fact.

So now some are being proactive about this. High school and college athletes get a preseason brain scan at the Florida Orthopaedic Institute. It’s typically done every two years. More parents, however, want it done every single year. 10 news reporters, Shannon Viadoleed shows you how it works and what doctors are able to find.

Mark has three kids. They’re all involved in high impact sports. His two sons play soccer. His daughter is a gymnast. Recently his oldest son’s team all took this preseason brain scan. It was done on a computer and none of the families really fully understood exactly what the test was all about. But after the boys described it to us after the fact, it made a lot of sense. He says he and the other parents were surprised to the test for concussions wasn’t physical but mental. And it’s about reaction time. And how quickly do you process information.

The athletes take a basic online test with words and shape. So they measure memory and also reaction times. So you can see how a healthy brain works and how it reacts and the memory that it has before it becomes injured. It’s called impact – immediate post-concussion assessment and cognitive testing.

Dr. Jeff Sellman with the Florida Orthopaedic Institute says MRIs and CT scans normally don’t pick up on a concussion. So with this computer test, they can monitor yearly. If the athlete’s brain is still sharp. To have a collision sports and high contact sports have the ability to have the testing like this to make sure they’re still at the level that they were before, I believe is very important.

Dr. Sellman isn’t only taking care of his patients. He’s also taking care of athletes here in Hillsborough County. They’ve teamed up with nearly 20 schools in the district to offer free impact tests. The impact tests can be done every two years, but dr Sellman says more patients want their children to get them every year. That way the results are more clear.

In Tampa, Shannon Viadoleed 10 News.

And something as simple as looking at a computer and seeing shapes and whatnot. Listen, this impact test is done nationwide, which has created a national database and that allows doctors to see which age groups and which sports are more prone to concussions. Dr. Sellman recommends athletes as young as 12 start taking this.