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posted by martyb on Saturday November 18 2017, @03:36AM   Printer-friendly
from the strong-claims dept.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has been diagnosed in a (formerly) living person and confirmed by an autopsy:

Researchers published, what they say is the first case of a living person identified with the degenerative brain disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.

While unnamed in the study, lead author Dr. Bennet Omalu confirmed to CNN that the subject of the case was former NFL player, Fred McNeill -- who died in 2015.

Omalu is credited with first discovering CTE in professional football players. The only way to definitively diagnose the disease is with a brain exam after death.

The discovery was first made in 2012 using an experimental brain scan that can trace a signature protein of CTE called tau. The case study was published in the journal Neurosurgery [open, DOI: 10.1093/neuros/nyx536] [DX] this week.

[...] While the experimental technology has been used on at least a dozen other former NFL players including Pro Football Hall of Famer, Dallas Cowboy Tony Dorsett, McNeill is the first case to have the test results confirmed with an autopsy. Omalu helped develop and is invested in the diagnostic exam, which uses a radioactive "tracer" called FDDNP to bind to tau proteins in the brain. The tau proteins can then be seen on a PET scan of the brain.

Also at ESPN.

Note: Some skepticism may be warranted.

Previously: Researchers: Aaron Hernandez Had the Worst Case of CTE Ever Seen in an Athlete So Young


Original Submission

Related Stories

Researchers: Aaron Hernandez Had the Worst Case of CTE Ever Seen in an Athlete So Young 20 comments

Aaron Hernandez's brain shows signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) with a severity beyond anything experts have ever seen in an athlete his age:

The Boston researcher who examined the brain of former football star Aaron Hernandez says it showed the most damage her team had seen in an athlete so young.

Hernandez, whose on-field performance for the New England Patriots earned him a $40 million contract in 2012, hanged himself in a prison cell earlier this year while serving a life sentence for murder. He was 27 years old.

Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist who directs research of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, at Boston University, said her research team found Hernandez had Stage 3 CTE and that they had never seen such severe damage in a brain younger than 46 years old. McKee announced her findings at medical conference on Thursday in Boston where she spoke publicly for the first time.

The researchers described the brain as one of the most significant contributions to their work due to the former athlete's young age at the time of his death. Also at the Boston Herald.

In other news, a lawsuit by the estate of Aaron Hernandez (filed while Hernandez was alive) against a prison phone service has been thrown out:

The identity of a hacker who accessed jailhouse conversations between Aaron Hernandez and his fiancee while he was awaiting trial will likely never be revealed now that a judge has spiked the former Patriot's lawsuit against the phone service hired to record and store non-privileged calls.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Helene Kazanjian entered her judgment Monday allowing Texas-based Securus Technologies Inc.'s motions to dismiss Hernandez's complaint. It was initially filed in federal court last year, five months before Hernandez hanged himself in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley. Hernandez's estate was pushing forward with the civil action.

Did American football create a murderer and drive him to suicide?

Previously: NFL Acknowledges Link Between American Football and CTE
Ailing NFL Players' Brains Show Signs of Neurodegenerative Disease
Former Football Star Aaron Hernandez's Brain Found to Have Severe CTE


Original Submission

Study Finds High Levels of CTE-Linked Protein in the Brains of Former Football Players 14 comments

Abnormal Levels of a Protein Linked to C.T.E.[*] Found in N.F.L Players' Brains, Study Shows

Experimental brain scans of more than two dozen former N.F.L. players found that the men had abnormal levels of the protein linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease associated with repeated hits to the head.

Using positron emission tomography, or PET, scans, the researchers found "elevated amounts of abnormal tau protein" in the parts of the brain associated with the disease, known as C.T.E., compared to men of similar age who had not played football.

The authors of the study and outside experts stressed that such tau imaging is far from a diagnostic test for C.T.E., which is likely years away and could include other markers, from blood and spinal fluid.

The results of the study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday [DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1900757] [DX], are considered preliminary, but constitute a first step toward developing a clinical test to determine the presence of C.T.E. in living players, as well as early signs and potential risk.

[*] CTE: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

Also at NBC.

Editorial: Links in the Chain of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMe1903746) (DX)

Related: NFL Acknowledges Link Between American Football and CTE
What if PTSD is More Physical Than Psychological?
Ailing NFL Players' Brains Show Signs of Neurodegenerative Disease
Former Football Star Aaron Hernandez's Brain Found to Have Severe CTE
Researchers: Aaron Hernandez Had the Worst Case of CTE Ever Seen in an Athlete So Young
CTE Can be Diagnosed in a Living Person


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Snotnose on Saturday November 18 2017, @03:39AM (8 children)

    by Snotnose (1623) on Saturday November 18 2017, @03:39AM (#598546)

    Still-born child? Aborted child? Former Cxx? Born zombie? Enquiring minds want to know!

    --
    Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday November 18 2017, @03:53AM (6 children)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Saturday November 18 2017, @03:53AM (#598561)

      Professional football player. Watch the movie: Concussion (2015).

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
      • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday November 18 2017, @10:35AM (5 children)

        by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday November 18 2017, @10:35AM (#598616) Homepage

        Just as I predicted, the news comes out as the once-lucrative NFL has been making some Europe-style deliberately-counterproductive decisions. Of course, they already knew that for much longer than you did. I surmise that not only did they know the whole story before you did, but that they deliberately covered it up for years if not decades.

        Of course it took the suicide of Jr. Seau to kickstart the (re-)interest, as he shot himself in the chest so that his brain would be preserved.

        I'm surprised that Dr. Omalu hasn't yet been a victim of the kind of "suicides" most often associated with Hillary Clinton -- that is, "suicide" caused by three shots to the back of the head with a bolt-action rifle. Suppose it would be rather pointless since the cat was let out of the bag.

        But there could be another angle to this -- the Jews. The NFL was for a long time a shining example of how Americans could resolve their regional differences but be united in a shining manner. George Soros and other Jews don't like that. Infiltrating and destroying nations is what they do best, and have done best, for thousands of years.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 18 2017, @12:12PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 18 2017, @12:12PM (#598631)

          But there could be another angle to this -- the Jews. The NFL was for a long time a shining example of how Americans could resolve their regional differences but be united in a shining manner. George Soros and other Jews don't like that. Infiltrating and destroying nations is what they do best, and have done best, for thousands of years.

          National Football League of Shadows

        • (Score: 3, Funny) by RamiK on Saturday November 18 2017, @12:34PM (3 children)

          by RamiK (1813) on Saturday November 18 2017, @12:34PM (#598638)

          But there could be another angle to this -- the Jews. The NFL was for a long time a shining example of how Americans could resolve their regional differences but be united in a shining manner. George Soros and other Jews don't like that. Infiltrating and destroying nations is what they do best, and have done best, for thousands of years.

          Damn those Jews for trying to make us stop sacrificing our youth to Mammon in the holy ritual of NFL football. Don't they know that it is only through the repeated bashing of our skulls against one another in this very lucrative pass-time activity that we can prove our unity and faith as the chosen to HIM?

          Damn them!

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          compiling...
          • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday November 18 2017, @12:47PM (2 children)

            by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday November 18 2017, @12:47PM (#598640) Homepage

            Oy, Vey. Any expression of national pride is, indeed, anuddah Shoah!

            We cannot tolerate that racism and anti-semitism any longer. In fact, I believe the NFL needs more lesbians with short grey hair on the field. Go team Soros!

            • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Saturday November 18 2017, @09:04PM

              by RamiK (1813) on Saturday November 18 2017, @09:04PM (#598754)

              Oy, Vey. Any expression of national pride is, indeed, anuddah Shoah!

              As an atheist, this is actually how I interpret Jesus. Apparently I'm not alone in this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_anarchism [wikipedia.org]

              In fact, I believe the NFL needs more lesbians with short grey hair on the field...

              I believe most sports need more women in skimpy outfits and preferably no men.

              Honestly, I couldn't care less about the NFL. I don't know what's your fascination with grown man wearing tights and staring each-other's behinds, but if you can't tell the difference between healthy patriotism and banging heads against the (defensive) wall, you're not doing a great service to your country taking this position either.

              Besides, the NFL doesn't have to stop. They can just go hard single-piece body-head armor like hard-upper-torso spacesuits so tackles will transfer force to the yoke, upper-chest and shoulders instead of the head.

              Like, take these https://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/10/modernspacesuits.jpg [wired.com] and strip all the unnecessary crap leaving something like this: https://ibb.co/mXPJ06 [ibb.co] . A few more tweaks are probably necessary but it's an easily solvable problem if those NFL idiots just admit there's a problem and hire an engineer to solve it.

              Or, you could send those guys to keep butting heads for no good god damn reason while anyone suggesting otherwise to be an anti-patriotic Jew scheming to pussify America.

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              compiling...
            • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday November 18 2017, @10:46PM

              by JoeMerchant (3937) on Saturday November 18 2017, @10:46PM (#598776)

              So, we bought a house once from a pair of short grey haired lesbians who were breaking up - one was the campaign manager for Janet Reno's run for Florida Governor.

              --
              🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Saturday November 18 2017, @11:57AM

      by wonkey_monkey (279) on Saturday November 18 2017, @11:57AM (#598630) Homepage

      Living at the time of diagnosis.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 18 2017, @06:01PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 18 2017, @06:01PM (#598706)

    News at 11.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by epitaxial on Saturday November 18 2017, @07:20PM

    by epitaxial (3165) on Saturday November 18 2017, @07:20PM (#598727)

    This seems self explanatory. Did you get hit in the head a bunch of times? Yeah you probably have some brain damage. Just listen to Leon Spinks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LYbSHoKKDc [youtube.com]

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