791 BO14 – Mixed martial arts vs rugby: which sport produces larger deformation of brain white matter?

Emily Yik Kwan Chan, Christopher W. Jones, Kieran Austin, Mike Loosemore, Mazdak Ghajari

Unknown venue, 2024

Abstract

Background Head impacts in sports produce brain deformation, which can damage brain white matter leading to short/long-term effects. Quantifying white matter deformation (strain) in different sports allows developing tailored prevention and treatment strategies. Objective We tested whether white matter tracts are subjected to different strains during impacts in two contact sports, rugby and mixed martial arts (MMA). Design The PROTECHT instrumented mouthguard (iMG) was used to measure head kinematics. Information on the measurement settings, filtering and validation can be found in [1]. We used the Imperial College finite element model of brain injury biomechanics to predict brain deformation. This model has been validated against recent experiments on post-mortem human subjects[2]. Participants Five professional male MMA fighters and eight elite male rugby players were instrumented. Athletes wore the iMG to capture head impacts during the entire match. Total 296 head impacts were collected, all video-verified, with 150 from MMA and 146 from rugby. Outcome measurements We calculated peak linear and rotational accelerations. The distribution of maximum principal strain within the…

Cite as (BibTeX)

@article{chan-2024-791-bo14-mixed-martial,
  title={791 BO14 – Mixed martial arts vs rugby: which sport produces larger deformation of brain white matter?},
  author={Emily Yik Kwan Chan and Christopher W. Jones and Kieran Austin and Mike Loosemore and Mazdak Ghajari},
  year={2024},
  doi={10.1136/bjsports-2024-ioc.90}
}