Cerebral and Cognitive Impact of Female Professional SoccerPractice

Launched by UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, STRASBOURG, FRANCE · Jan 16, 2025

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This clinical trial is studying the effects of repeated minor head injuries on female professional soccer players, particularly focusing on their brain health and cognitive abilities as they reach the end of their careers. The researchers will use advanced imaging techniques, like MRI, to look for changes in the brain structure and function of these athletes. They want to compare the results with a control group of female athletes who have not experienced head injuries, to see if there's a significant difference.

To participate in the study, you need to be a female professional soccer player aged 32 or older who has played in France's Ligue 1 or 2 and has experienced repeated mild head injuries. Alternatively, you could be a high-level female athlete, like a tennis player, who has never been exposed to sports that could lead to head injuries. Participants will undergo MRI scans, and they will be informed about the findings. It’s important to know that some individuals, such as those with a history of severe head injuries or certain health conditions, may not qualify for the study. This research aims to enhance our understanding of how playing soccer at a professional level can impact brain health over time.

Gender

FEMALE

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Exposed high-level athletes: female professional soccer players at the end of their career (32- years old) playing in France Ligue 1 or 2 exposed to repeated mild head injuries with no history of severe head injury or cerebral
• • Female High-level athletes not exposed to repeated mild head injuries: control group paired for age with female professional soccer players, who have never regularly participated in sports exposing them to head injuries (notably rugby, basketball, handball, American football, hockey, combat sports, etc.) and who have no history of head injury, even mild. Female Professional tennis players or former players will be preferentially recruited.
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • Refusal to be informed of abnormalities on MRI
• • Incapacity to give informed consent or under a legal protection order;
• • History of cerebral concussion including the presence after head shock of one or more of the following signs or symptoms: a period of confusion or disorientation, a period of loss of consciousness of 30 minutes or less, post-traumatic amnesia not exceeding 24 hours
• • History of severe head/brain injury;
• • History of neurological or psychiatric disorder;
• • Known cerebral abnormality diagnosed by an imaging exam (CT or MRI);
• • History or regular or occasional consumption of drugs, unweaned active smoking or weaned for less than 1 year, excessive consumption of alcohol (\> 20 g alcohol per day, evaluated with the formula "degree of alcohol × volume in cl × 8/1000"), weaned or not.
• • Usage of medication targeting the central nervous system in the 2 weeks preceding inclusion in the study;
• • Prior history of severe hypertension, diabetes, chronic heart disease, progressive or disabling disease;
• • Contraindication to MRI (claustrophobia, implanted material not compatible with MRI, refusal to be informed of abnormality discovered on MRI)