Editor’s Note:  Does this frighten anyone else but me?

Some high school football players exhibit measurable brain changes after a single season of play even in the absence of concussion, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

“This study adds to the growing body of evidence that a season of play in a contact sport can affect the brain in the absence of clinical findings,” said Christopher T. Whitlow, M.D., Ph.D., M.H.A., associate professor of radiology at Wake Forest School of Medicine and radiologist at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.

A number of reports have emerged in recent years about the potential effects playing youth sports may have on developing brains. However, most of these studies have looked at brain changes as a result of concussion. Dr. Whitlow and colleagues set out to determine if head impacts acquired over a season of high school football produce white matter changes in the brain in the absence of clinically diagnosed concussion.

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