Publications by authors named "Fred Reifsteck"
Background: Studies on the longitudinal effects of intense physical training on cardiac remodeling are limited, especially in American collegiate football players.
Hypothesis: College-level American football training will result in remodeling in a pattern consistent of a sport with moderate static and dynamic demands with increases in both wall and chamber sizes.
Methods: We studied 85 American collegiate football players who underwent transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) for asymptomatic or mild COVID-19-related illness and compared the changes in echo dimensions to their preparticipation screening TTE.
Background: There is a paucity of data describing the association between blood pressure (BP) and cardiac remodeling in female collegiate athletes.
Methods: This retrospective cohort review describes the BP characteristics and echocardiographic features of female collegiate athletes during preparticipation evaluation. We evaluated data from 329 female athletes at two National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I universities who underwent preparticipation evaluation that included medical history, physical examination, 12-lead electrocardiography, and 2-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography.
Knowledge of cardiovascular adaptations in athletes has predominantly focused on males, with limited data available on females who compromise a substantial percentage of all collegiate athletes. A multicenter retrospective cohort review of preparticipation cardiovascular screening data of 329 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I female athletes was performed. This included physical exams, electrocardiograms, and echocardiograms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Sport is a socio-ecological framework where student-athletes are part of a larger community of stakeholders, including coaches, sports medicine professionals (SMPs), and parents. This framework may hold influence over whether student-athletes seek care for a concussion.
Aim: We aimed to describe, compare, and determine the influence of stakeholder concussion knowledge, attitudes, and concussion scenario responses.
Background: Clinicians rely on student-athletes to self-report concussion symptoms, but more than 50% of concussions go undisclosed.
Aim: The aim of this study was to determine whether knowledge, attitudes, subjective norms, self-efficacy, social identity, and athletic identity explain variability in student-athlete concussion reporting intentions and behavior.
Materials And Methods: One hundred and forty-seven Division I and II collegiate student-athletes (male=23, female=56, missing=168; age=19.
Although a base level of knowledge is needed to recognize a concussion, knowledge-focused concussion educational materials ignore multifaceted barriers to concussion reporting. We compared student-athlete concussion reporting intentions and behaviors prior to and 1 year after exposure to an intervention or control treatment. We randomly assigned 891 collegiate student-athletes from three universities (Divisions I, II, III) to either the control group (National College Athletic Association [NCAA] Concussion Fact Sheet) or intervention group (theory-based, data-driven, multimedia, simulated concussion reporting module).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Some remodelling of the aortic root may be expected to occur with exercise but can already vary due to different body sizes, compositions and genetic predispositions. Attributing the cause of borderline aortic root diameter (ARD) values to either physiological or pathological conditions in American college football athletes is difficult as there is very limited normal reference values in this population. Body surface area (BSA) specific norms are thought to be useful in other cardiac measurements of football athletes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Are borderline echocardiogram structural measurements due to physiological adaptation or pathology in college football players? The normal reference data are very limited in this population. We report left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD) and interventricular septal diameter (IVSD) echocardiogram findings in college football athletes.
Methods And Results: A retrospective cohort review of preparticipation examination transthoracic echocardiogram measurements of LVEDD and IVSD from 375 American collegiate football athletes cleared for participation from the University of Florida in 2012-2017 and University of Georgia in 2010-2015 was performed.
Primary Objective: The objective of this study was to determine whether sex, years of sport eligibility completed, and sport contact level influenced student-athletes' concussion reporting intentions and behaviours.
Research Design: Cross-sectional.
Methods And Procedures: Student-athletes (n = 828) reported their sex, years of sport eligibility completed, sport, and completed concussion reporting intentions and behaviours surveys.
Objective: To determine whether players with heavier faceguards have increased odds of sustaining top of the head impacts and head impacts of higher severity.
Design: Cohort study.
Setting: On-field.
Objective: To review 16 years of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) injury surveillance data for men's football and identify potential areas for injury prevention initiatives.
Background: Football is a high-velocity collision sport in which injuries are expected. Football tends to have one of the highest injury rates in sports.