A Biomarker Study of Head Injury in Rugby – Update October 2017

The Drake Foundation study in collaboration with Saracens, UCL, and Imperial College London (Supported by the RFU)

The cohort for our longitudinal biomarker, imaging and psychometric study of concussion in rugby union has now grown to 210 participants, with the inclusion of further clubs and women’s teams.

In addition to ongoing fluid collections for biomarker analysis, 17 players (concussed and controls) have now undergone functional and structural MRI brain scans alongside detailed psychometric assessments with our collaborators at Imperial College London.

Sample collection and imaging will continue over the course of the 2017/18 season and we hope to present preliminary data from the study at academic meetings in Spring/Summer 2018.