June/July 2021 - 29

Concussions
" It could help, for sure. But concussions are multivariable thing.
There's certainly far more than just one indicator of a concussion.
If anything, I think this could be a factor [in the testing process]. "
- Keaton Mangi, Sacred Heart University assistant ATC
University of Birmingham come into
play. Along with her colleague at the
London Institute, Dr. Valentine Di
Pietro conducted a test from 2017
to 2019, during which they obtained
saliva samples from a group of elitelevel
male rugby players with the
intent being " to investigate the role
of salivary small non-coding RNAs
(sncRNAs) in the diagnosis of sportrelated
concussion. "
According to the conclusion from
the study Di Pietro et al produced for
the British Journal of Sports Medicine,
the test " identified unique signatures
of concussion in the saliva of male
athletes diagnosed with a concussion. "
At first glance, it seems like the
complicated, yet delicate process
of identifying a concussion has
been simplified immensely. While
the findings might be helpful, some
athletic trainers don't think that would
instantly put an end to all other levels
of their concussion protocols.
" It's an interesting concept, but
I wouldn't weigh that as the sole
component of diagnosing somebody
with a concussion, " Keaton Mangi,
assistant athletic trainer to both
Sacred Heart University's baseball
and field hockey varsity programs,
said. " It could help, for sure. But
concussions are a multivariable
thing. There's certainly far more than
just one indicator of a concussion. If
anything, I think it could be a factor
(in the testing process). "
Furthermore, athletic trainers
aren't necessarily looking to diagnose
a concussion. They're trying to
identify the symptoms that indicate
an athlete suffered a concussion,
but the diagnosis is carried out by
another party.
" We're going through these
cognitive and sideline checklists, but
it's the doctors who are diagnosing
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the concussions, " Bumpas, formerly
an athletic trainer at Northwestern
University, said. " It's not necessarily
a simple fix because it's lab work. So,
it's going to take longer and probably
be more expensive.
" Also, in this study, they only tested
150 people. That's a pretty small
sample size of all athletes, and they
only tested for males. Is it different
for females? Because, obviously,
chemical makeup between the sexes
can differ. "
But for all the apprehension
expressed by Bumpas and Mangi,
they'd both happily welcome a more
efficient way to navigate the complex
injuries that are concussions.
" We would love any way to make
this easier and more efficient for
both the patient and, in my case, the
parents, as well as the academic staff
with kids being out of taking tests
(for a class), " Bumpas said. " I'm sure
any athletic trainer would love an
easier way to diagnose concussions.
" And I totally understand the
development of something to make
this simpler and streamlined, but
that obviously takes money, too.
Would that really be accessible to
most people? There's a lot that goes
into. More needs to be done as far as
research goes, but I don't think any
of us are jumping to conclusions with
one study. " n
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June/July 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of June/July 2021
