Researchers say their newly published study confirms a finding of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in a living patient.
The study, published in Neurosurgery this week, found the presence of tau, a protein that forms around damaged neural cells, in 14 living retired NFL players through a brain scan. Following the death of one of the players, doctors confirmed a CTE diagnosis.
Dr. Bennet Omalu, one of the 12 researchers for the paper, told ESPN's Outside the Lines that the former NFL player was Fred McNeill, who died in 2015.
Dr. Julian Bailes, who participated in the study, told ESPN that the new publication contains the peer review of two co-authors, who confirmed that McNeill had been living with CTE, as OTL reported in February 2016.
CTE can cause symptoms such as depression, impulsive anger, violent mood swings, memory loss and deficits similar in some cases to Alzheimer's disease. CTE has been found in a number of former NFL players after their deaths, including Junior Seau, Dave Duerson and Aaron Hernandez.
"It's not just about the concussions," Bailes said. "It's about years of exposure and subconcussive blows."
McNeill had been studied by UCLA researchers, including Omalu, after he was showing symptoms of the disease. Omalu told OTL in February 2016 that McNeill's case was the first correlation between UCLA's experimental testing and a posthumous examination.
Bailes said the data could improve the potential diagnosis of CTE in players while they are still alive.
Study confirms CTE finding in player tested while living
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Study confirms CTE finding in player tested while living
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pus wrote:elephant in the stadium
wonder if the NFL would use this information to have players sign health waivers when they sign their contracts? if it was up to Goodell, I don't think there would be any doubt they would try
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Nobody is forcing them to play. Most players will continue to play despite the health risks while chasing the money
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Scary stuff. I've been playing rugby long enough for this to worry me, can't imagine what its like for NFL players.
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Just my opinion. Until real data comes out this is all very useless information.malk wrote:Scary stuff. I've been playing rugby long enough for this to worry me, can't imagine what its like for NFL players.
1. What % of the population has CTE?
2. These studies are not random NFL players so is there a bias.
3. Causation vs correlation?
We know a lot but the view point is small. Does HRT hide or fix side effects? Is there a treatable or testable control?
Many other questions.