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Cerebral and Cognitive Impact of Professional Soccer Practice

NCT04903015 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 80

Last updated 2025-08-08

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The objective of this study is to evaluate, using MRI, the microstructural consequences and the onset of any cognitive impairment in professional soccer players at the end of their career, who have experienced repeated minor head injuries. Over the long term, these head injuries could lead to morphological lesions and have an impact on soccer players' cognitive skills.

The main evaluation criterion corresponds to the modifications found on MRI in the professional soccer player group (diffusion tensor, cerebral perfusion, fMRI, cerebral volumetry and cortical thickness, spectroscopy, susceptibility imaging).

This is an exposure/nonexposure study assessing the onset of MRI abnormalities (diffusion tensor, cerebral perfusion, fMRI, volumetry and cortical thickness, spectroscopy, susceptibility imaging) in professional soccer players exposed to repeated mild head injuries, who are either at the end of their career or retired for approximately 10 years, compared to high-level athletes not exposed to head injuries.

Conditions

  • Traumatic Chronic Encephalopathy

Interventions

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

MRI

The following sequences of the MRI will be acquired during the inclusion visit: * 3D T1 gradient echo (GRE): anatomy; registration; cerebral, white matter, and grey matter volumetry; and cortical thickness; * multiecho 3D T2 GRE: quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM), iron overload quantification; * continuous arterial spin labeling (ASL) 3D: cerebral perfusion; * resting-state fMRI: functional connectivity; * 64-direction DTI (b=1000 and 2500): alterations in white matter and its microstructure, anatomic connectivity; * monovoxel spectroscopy of the mesencephalus with short echo time (TE).

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • University Hospital, Strasbourg, France

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Stéphane KREMER, MD · Hôpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg

Study Design

Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
SCREENING
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
32 Years
Max Age
55 Years
Sex
MALE
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2022-01-07
Primary Completion
2026-02-07
Completion
2026-02-07

Countries

  • France

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT04903015 on ClinicalTrials.gov