Psychometric testing and cerebral perfusion in amateur boxers and controls

Psychometric testing and technetium-99m HMPAO brain scanning were undertaken on amateur boxers chosen to represent the Royal Navy and Army Boxing Associations and a control group of fit young Servicemen with a similar age distribution.Psychometric testing on these 41 amateur boxers and 27 controls revealed significant differences in most tests to the detriment of the boxers. Furthermore, dividing the boxing group into 21 boxers with less than 40 bouts and 20 boxers with greater than 40 bouts revealed significant differences to the detriment of the high matched boxers.Technetium-99m HMPAO brain scanning undertaken on 34 amateur boxers and 34 controls revealed significantly more aberrations in cerebral perfusions in the group of boxers (42%) than the controls (14%).The results of this study are discussed in relation to all recent studies presented in the literature. (DX191318)