A football player sustains a concussion; if their cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (CMRglc) plummets severely during the acute phase, which consequence becomes most probable, overwhelming compensatory mechanisms?

💡 Explanation

Excitotoxic neuronal cell death becomes likely when CMRglc plummets because energy failure impairs glutamate reuptake, leading to overstimulation of glutamate receptors and subsequent neuronal damage via excessive calcium influx. Therefore, excitotoxicity is the dominant outcome, rather than astrocyte compensation or BBB strengthening, which are neuroprotective mechanisms; oxidative phosphorylation would require sufficient CMRglc.

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