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CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the disease caused by repetitive head trauma is typically only diagnosable by autopsies. It was discovered by post-mortem brain examinations of professional football and soccer players that sustained repetitive head trauma. CTE may soon be routinely diagnosable in the living.
Radiologists at Boston University’s med school, the Harvard Medical School, and the Mayo Clinic now report a study of 26 former NFL players using the latest PET scanning technique. These new positron emission tomography studies using unique injectable contrast agents can now detect depositions of tau proteins in the brain.
Compared with healthy controls who had not sustained head injuries, the NFL players with cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms had significantly higher deposits of tau protein on imaging. The more years of tackle football a player had under his belt, the greater the accumulation of tau protein in the brain.
This study marks the beginning of testing for CTE in living patients. The study authors caution that the technique is not yet ready for prime time as more and larger confirmatory studies must be completed.
If you do know of a patient with a history of repeated head trauma who is evidencing symptoms of deteriorating brain function, it may be possible for that patient to join a study and receive imaging that could lead to treatment once that is available.
Robert A. Stern, Charles H. Adler, Kewei Chen, Michael Navitsky, Ji Luo, David W. Dodick, Michael L. Alosco, Yorghos Tripodis, Dhruman D. Goradia, Brett Martin, Diego Mastroeni, Nathan G. Fritts, Johnny Jarnagin, Michael D. Devous, Mark A. Mintun, Michael J. Pontecorvo, Martha E. Shenton, Eric M. Reiman. Tau Positron-Emission Tomography in Former National Football League Players. New England Journal of Medicine, 2019; DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1900757
#CTE #chronictraumaticencephalopathy #tau #dementia #football #soccer
