Publications by authors named "Carrie Esopenko"

Cortical parcellation is a critical step in several neuroimaging pipelines, yet even in high quality images without pathology, errors are common. For patients with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (ms-TBI), typical parcellation errors can be exacerbated by focal pathology impacting cortical regions. Careful visual quality checking (QC) of parcellation images of ms-TBI patients should be routinely conducted to identify the presence of parcellation errors across regions ().

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Investigate the effects of transcranial plus intranasal photobiomodulation (PBM) treatment on cognitive function, using an 810 nm light emitting diode headset and intranasal applicator every other day for 8-10 weeks. An effective gold standard for the rehabilitation of repetitive head acceleration events (RHAEs) does not yet exist. Forty-four participants with a history of RHAEs completed a battery of cognitive tests before and after PBM treatment.

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Background And Objectives: Nearly 24 million adults in the United States identify as LGBTQIA+, facing significant health disparities due to discrimination, structural barriers, and lack of culturally competent health care. This study explores health care disparities, barriers, facilitators, and the association of perceived discrimination on LGBTQIA+ health care.

Methods: Participants were recruited from June 2023 to January 2024 using convenience sampling methods via LGBTQIA+ organizations and social media platforms.

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Objective: The aim of the study was to characterize the experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV)-related head trauma (HT) among cisgender women.

Setting: Three geographic regions across the United States.

Participants: Seventy-two cisgender women aged 18 to 60 years (mean age = 39.

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An extensive library of symptom inventories has been developed over time to measure clinical symptoms of traumatic brain injury (TBI), but this variety has led to several long-standing issues. Most notably, results drawn from different settings and studies are not comparable. This creates a fundamental problem in TBI diagnostics and outcome prediction, namely that it is not possible to equate results drawn from distinct tools and symptom inventories.

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Nutritional supplements (NS) are linked to adverse events and unintentional doping among college-athletes. The use of third-party tested (TPT) NS can increase safety and reduce the risk of inadvertent consumption of banned substances. The purpose of this study was to examine self-reported use of TPT supplements between the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I (DI) and Division III (DIII) college-athletes and explore the potential predictors of TPT use.

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Individuals who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) often report posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive symptoms and IPV-related head trauma (IPV-HT), which can also affect mental health. We aimed to estimate rates of IPV-HT and examine the unique associations of IPV, HT, and IPV-HT with PTSD and depression symptom severity in a community-based sample of cohabitating couples. A total of 413 participants (216 women, 1 non-binary) self-reported lifetime history of HT and physical IPV.

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Introduction: Service academy members are at high risk for concussions as a result of participation in both sports and military-specific training activities. Approximately 17% of active duty service members are female, and they face unique challenges in achieving timely recovery from concussions. Understanding the unique characteristics affecting return to unrestricted activity (RTA) among female service academy members is imperative for the ever-growing proportion of females across the U.

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Importance: Blast-related mild traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), the "signature injury" of post-9/11 conflicts, are associated with clinically relevant, long-term cognitive, psychological, and behavioral dysfunction and disability; however, the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear.

Objective: To investigate associations between a history of remote blast-related mild TBI and regional brain volume in a sample of US veterans and active duty service members.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Prospective cohort study of US veterans and active duty service members from the Long-Term Impact of Military-Relevant Brain Injury Consortium-Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium (LIMBIC-CENC), which enrolled more than 1500 participants at 5 sites used in this analysis between 2014 and 2023.

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Deficits in memory performance have been linked to a wide range of neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions. While many studies have assessed the memory impacts of individual conditions, this study considers a broader perspective by evaluating how memory recall is differentially associated with nine common neuropsychiatric conditions using data drawn from 55 international studies, aggregating 15,883 unique participants aged 15-90. The effects of dementia, mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain injury, stroke, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder on immediate, short-, and long-delay verbal learning and memory (VLM) scores were estimated relative to matched healthy individuals.

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Objective: To investigate dizziness, vestibular/oculomotor symptoms, and cervical spine proprioception among adults with/without a concussion history.

Methods: Adults ages 18-40 years with/without a concussion history completed: dizziness handicap inventory (DHI), visio-vestibular exam (VVE), and head repositioning accuracy (HRA, assesses cervical spine proprioception). Linear regression models were used to assess relationships between (1) concussion/no concussion history group and VVE, HRA, and DHI, and (2) DHI with HRA and VVE for the concussion history group.

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Objective: COVID-19 has been associated with myocardial involvement in collegiate athletes. The first report from the Big Ten COVID-19 Cardiac Registry (Registry) was an ecological study that reported myocarditis in 37 of 1597 athletes (2.3%) based on local clinical diagnosis.

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Article Synopsis
  • Many veterans experience intimate partner violence (IPV) and risk factors for this include things like combat experiences, PTSD, and depression.
  • The study looked at 49 male veterans to see if problems in their brain, specifically in the limbic system, relate to their likelihood of committing IPV.
  • Results showed that veterans with PTSD, depression, or other issues were more likely to engage in IPV, especially if they had more stress from war.
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This proof-of-concept study was to investigate the relationship between photobiomodulation (PBM) and neuromuscular control. The effects of concussion and repetitive head acceleration events (RHAEs) are associated with decreased motor control and balance. Simultaneous intranasal and transcranial PBM (itPBM) is emerging as a possible treatment for cognitive and psychological sequelae of brain injury with evidence of remote effects on other body systems.

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Background And Objectives: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a concern for US service members and veterans (SMV), leading to heterogeneous psychological and cognitive outcomes. We sought to identify neuropsychological profiles of mild TBI (mTBI) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among the largest SMV sample to date.

Methods: We analyzed cross-sectional baseline data from SMV with prior combat deployments enrolled in the ongoing Long-term Impact of Military-relevant Brain Injury Consortium-Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium prospective longitudinal study.

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Background And Purpose: Sport-specific training may improve postural control, while repetitive head acceleration events (RHAEs) may compromise it. Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying postural control may contextualize changes due to training and RHAE. The goal of this study was to determine whether postural sway during the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) is related to white matter organization (WMO) in collegiate athletes.

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Article Synopsis
  • Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) is a valuable tool for studying brain connectivity, particularly in relation to neurological disorders like traumatic brain injury (TBI), but there is a lack of standardization in how it is used across different research groups.
  • This narrative review aims to tackle key methodological challenges in rsfMRI research for TBI by providing recommendations for data acquisition, processing, and analysis to enhance the reliability and comparability of study results.
  • The review consists of a literature search on current rsfMRI studies, a set of seven recommendations for improving research practices, and a discussion of future research directions to promote rigorous methods and transparency in the TBI research community.
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Article Synopsis
  • MRI is a key tool in researching diagnostic and prognostic markers after traumatic brain injury (TBI), particularly to understand mild TBI (mTBI), but findings are often inconsistent, highlighting the need for further study.
  • The study analyzed MRI data from 976 military veterans and service members to explore the links between imaging outcomes and clinical features of mTBI, using regression models to account for factors like age and sex.
  • Results indicated that while no major differences were found between those with and without mTBI history, blast-related mTBI showed significant brain volume reductions in certain areas, and multiple mTBIs correlated with specific MRI findings.
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Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant, global public health concern. Women, individuals with historically underrepresented identities, and disabilities are at high risk for IPV and tend to experience severe injuries. There has been growing concern about the risk of exposure to IPV-related head trauma, resulting in IPV-related brain injury (IPV-BI), and its health consequences.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the relationship between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and changes in brain connectivity, particularly in military personnel with different histories of TBI during combat versus non-combat situations.
  • It focuses on how functional connectivity (FC) in brain regions related to movement, like the basal ganglia, varies depending on the context of the injuries.
  • The results reveal that those with deployment-related mild TBI have increased connectivity in certain brain areas, while non-deployment mild TBI was linked to significant correlations with walking performance, suggesting different behavioral outcomes based on the circumstances of the injury.*
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Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine sex differences in recovery trajectories of assessments for sport-related concussion using Concussion Assessment, Research and Education (CARE) Consortium data.

Methods: National Collegiate Athletic Association athletes (N = 906; 61% female) from sex-comparable sports completed a pre-season baseline assessment and post-sport-related concussion assessments within 6 h of injury, 24-48 h, when they initiated their return to play progression, when they were cleared for unrestricted return to play, and 6 months post-injury. Assessments included the Standardized Assessment of Concussion, Balance Error Scoring System, Brief Symptom Inventory-18, Immediate Post-concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT), Sport Concussion Assessment Tool-3 symptom evaluation, Clinical Reaction Time, King-Devick test, Vestibular Ocular Motor Screen, 12-item Short-Form Health Survey, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Satisfaction with Life Scale.

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Importance: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is known to cause widespread neural disruption in the cerebrum. However, less is known about the association of TBI with cerebellar structure and how such changes may alter executive functioning.

Objective: To investigate alterations in subregional cerebellum volume and cerebral white matter microstructure after pediatric TBI and examine subsequent changes in executive function.

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Article Synopsis
  • Female-specific concussion data in collegiate athletes is often lacking, prompting a study of initial injury characteristics and recovery outcomes in 1,393 female athletes across 30 US institutions.
  • The study recorded data on days to return to learn (6 days), initiate return to play (8 days), and unrestricted return to play (15 days), showing variations based on contact levels in sports.
  • Results indicated that most athletes experienced increased symptoms and slower recovery in various assessment areas after a concussion, contributing valuable insights for athletes, clinicians, and researchers.
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Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) has been described in the United States (US) military service academy cadet population, but female-specific characteristics and recovery outcomes are poorly characterized despite sex being a confounder. Our objective was to describe female cadets' initial characteristics, assessment performance, and return-to-activity outcomes post-mTBI. Female cadets (n = 472) from the four US military service academies who experienced a mTBI completed standardized mTBI assessments from pre-injury to acute initial injury and unrestricted return-to-duty (uRTD).

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Context: Concussion research has primarily focused on sport-related mechanisms and excluded non-sport-related mechanisms. In adult populations, non-sport-related concussions (non-SRCs) demonstrated worse clinical outcomes compared with sport-related concussions (SRCs); however, investigations of non-SRCs in college-aged patients are limited.

Objectives: To examine clinical outcomes in collegiate athletes with non-SRCs compared with SRCs and explore sex differences in outcomes among collegiate athletes with non-SRCs.

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