We want to see what happens to their eye movements over time if they play sports which include football other impact sports like soccer or rugby and a control group of non-impact sports like cross country and swimming,” Weise says. The team of researchers currently are working on three proposals to present for grants that would enable them to continue their work in the VOR Clinic.įirst, they want to examine athletes during their high school years to determine the effects of cumulative impacts on the brain. Christy, PT, PhD, UAB vestibular science Matthew Heath Hale, MPH, MD, Children’s of Alabama Concussion Clinic and UAB team physician Claudio Busettini, PHD (UAB Vision Science Mark Swanson, OD, MSPH, UAB adult eye care Joseph Ackerson, PhD, neuropsychology and Christopher Mike Jones, MAE, UAB Football head athletic trainer. Those working with Weise on the project include James Johnston, MD, UAB Neurosurgery Jennifer B. A collaboration like the one between Children’s of Alabama and UAB scientists, clinicians and athletes can be found nowhere else in the country on a single campus.” Rucker in the event that we wanted to broaden our research to include blast-injury concussion. “We purchased the same chair that they have at Ft. “Our chair is the only one in the state available to civilians.

A third piece to the VOR Clinic is the NeurOPtics pupilometer which allows clinicians to evaluate pupil light reflex in clinics and on sports fields. This allows a physician to see what head movement speeds are affected by inner ear disturbances and ensures an accurate diagnosis specific to a problem within the vestibular system. The rotational chair is used in addition to ENG/VNG (caloric) testing to confirm a diagnosis and to increase diagnostic accuracy. A recent grant enabled the team to purchase a state-of-the-art rotational chair with video tracking of eye movements to test eye tracking, as well as balance and the function of saccles and utricles. Their research hypothesis is that in the case of concussion, the vestibular ocular reflex system is not functioning correctly and is causing the swimming feeling in the head, dizziness, headaches and eye tracking issues. “We use the results to conduct evidence-based eye exercises in our rehab program, and we hope to put it to good use in impact exposure research.” “This was a rigorous scientific study funded by the National Institutes of Health,” Weise says. The results, published in 2008, showed a 73 percent improvement as a result of the vision rehab. In their Convergence Insufficiency Treatment Trial, the researchers studied healthy children with convergence insufficiency for 16 weeks with standard vision rehabilitation training. Testing showed that convergence insufficiency was prevalent in these patients.” “Concussion literature shows that these patients typically have tracking issues, problems pointing their eyes toward the same place on a page, and crossing their eyes, which we call convergence. Weise, OD, MBA, a pediatric optometrist at UAB. The system uses accelerometric sensors located in the inner ear to control body balance and to stabilize – using eye movements – the retinal images of the surrounding visual environment while the head is in motion,” says Katherine K.

“A person’s vestibular-oculo reflex system works to keep vision clear while the body is in motion. In partnership with Children’s of Alabama, they established the Vestibular and Oculo-motor Research (VOR) Clinic at UAB where they can evaluate young athletes who have suffered concussions. New diagnostics and therapies for the vestibular and oculomotor systems, currently being tested at UAB, may provide medical personnel the answers they need.Ī group of clinician-scientists from UAB Optometry and UAB Physical Therapy determined from growing literature that the vision and vestibular systems may be a link to many of the symptoms related to mTBI. However, diagnosis and monitoring of these mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) can be hindered by the absence of reliable biomarkers and are difficult to pinpoint with standard CT and MRI testing. In recent years, much attention has been given to new ways of testing for concussion injuries.

Concussion pupil test