Determining optimal sampling times for concussion blood biomarkers for prediction of recovery

mTBI is defined as: Diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) by a licensed physician. Healthy is defined as: Healthy controls are defined as males and females of any ethnicity that are 16 years of age or above, representing a heterogenous sample of the normal population. Healthy control participants must be neurologically healthy with no diagnosed or self-reported neurodegenerative conditions or diseases, including, but not limited to; dementia (Vascular, Lewy body, or Frontotemporal dementia or Alzheimer's disease), Parkinson's, Huntington's, Motor neurone disease and mild cognitive impairment, and no history of acute neurological events or structural brain abnormalities including TBI, stroke, seizure, epilepsy, chronic headache, and brain tumour and no unstable severe medical conditions, for example; cancer, severe coagulopathy, terminal illness, end-stage organ failure, acute kidney dysfunction, chronic kidney dysfunction or renal failure. Healthy controls must not have experienced a mild TBI (mTBI) within 12 months and not be experiencing persistent symptoms from previous mTBI at the time of data collection. Participants must reside in New Zealand and be willing and able to provide informed consent and blood samples for this study. What is involved for patients in this study: Participants involved in this study are required to provide: 1) blood samples; 2) fill out a medical history questionnaire; 3) height and weight recorded; 4) fill out a survey about head injuries; 5) complete a non-invasive eye tracking test. For those with a mTBI, these measures will be repeated over the course of seven months (up to seven clinic visits) to track recovery. List of assessments and the anticipated time required to complete each assessment: In total 60 minutes will be needed for the assessments for participants. For the healthy control group there will be one 60-minute visit required. For the mTBI group there will be seven visits 60-minute visits. These visits will occur at the same timepoints outlined in the primary outcomes, all post-injury. These timepoints are post-injury between 0- and 24-hours post-injury, at 72 hours, then at two and three weeks and then at three, five and seven months. 1) Blood samples (10 min): collected from participants will take 10 minutes. 2) Medical history General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) (10 min): filled in by participants will take 10 minutes. This will include questions about the participants previous menstrual cycle if applicable. As well as current medications and any medical diagnoses. 3) Height and weight (5 min): recorded from self-report or actual measurements where possible (time constraints a limiting factor) will take 5 minutes. 4) Brain health surveys (20 min): Surveys for head injuries filled in by participants will take 20 minutes. mTBI history questionnaire; Brain Injury Screening Tool-10; sports or non-sports related concussion; number of days and number of sessions to recover from mTBI; Perceived Recovery Scale; Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended. 5) Eye tracking (10 min): non-invasive eye tracking test and questionnaire relating to eye health completed by participants will take 10 minutes. For the mTBI group, the overall duration of observation will be up to seven months. For the healthy control group, the overall duration of observation will be one in-clinic visit totalling approximately one hour.