Elevated profile of “Q-Collar” invitations additional dialogue — Concussion Alliance

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By Keya Mookencherry. This text was initially revealed in our Concussion Replace publication; please take into account subscribing.

In case you have watched the Girls’s World Cup and different skilled soccer matches not too long ago, you may even see gamers carrying a “Q collar” round their necks. Q-collars are additionally worn by over “two dozen college and NFL teams.” Why can we see this? The Q-collar is usually known as a concussion-prevention methodology, though the corporate says the Q-collar helps “defend the mind” of contact athletes over a season of play. The FDA licensed the Q-collar because of the system presumably lowering delicate mind adjustments related to repetitive head impacts. 

Though there have been a number of research on why the Q collar could also be efficient, there have additionally been a number of critiques of the system and its negatives, highlighted in a previous Concussion Alliance review. For instance, a number of limitations embrace not being “demonstrated to stop long-term cognitive operate deficits,” no analysis of medical final result impacts, and the information not “demonstrat[ing] that the device can prevent concussion or serious brain injury.” 

In accordance with the WDHN ABC article, the FDA says the Q-Collar “compresses in opposition to the jugular veins within the athlete’s neck, rising the quantity of blood of their skulls blood vessels. The elevated blood then creates a ‘tighter match of the mind contained in the cranium,’ which might scale back” the quantity the mind strikes contained in the cranium. Nonetheless, this system additionally has some dangers, not simply rewards. Not solely could the Q-Collar present athletes with a attainable sense of false safety, however there are different dangers, comparable to passing out. 

Dangers additionally embrace syncope (passing out) and having a false sense of safety whereas taking part in sports activities, regardless of the FDA declare that the “possible advantages” outweigh the “possible dangers.” Concerning possible advantages, the FDA says there’s restricted mind tissue injury; nonetheless, the FDA additionally claimed there’s “uncertainty surrounding the imaging expertise that the research relied on,” and that sure conclusions associated to brain injury haven’t been “validated.” 

Dr. Julie Stamm (a Concussion Alliance Skilled Advisory Board Member) urged on social media X (Twitter) that rising “stress within the mind’s vasculature” might have long-term consequences by rising leakage throughout the blood-brain barrier (BBB). “Perivascular tau is a key CTE characteristic. One principle is that substances leaking by way of the BBB could injury close by neurons, presumably resulting in CTE pathology.”



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