Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Scientists Take Step Toward Being Able To Identify CTE In Football Players While They're Still Alive
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 鈥渆levated amounts of abnormal tau protein鈥 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. (Belson and Carey, 4/10)
Researchers may be closing in on a way to check athletes while they鈥檙e alive for signs of a degenerative brain disease that鈥檚 been linked to frequent head blows. Experimental scans found higher levels of an abnormal protein tied to the disease in a study of former National Football League players who were having mood and thinking problems. It鈥檚 the first time a major study has tested these scans for detecting chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, which is only diagnosed now after death, with brain autopsies. (Marchione, 4/10)
鈥淚t鈥檚 an important finding that will hopefully at some point lead to a diagnostic breakthrough, but we鈥檙e not there yet,鈥 said Dr. Michael Weiner, a professor of biomedical imaging, psychiatry, and neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the study. (Freyer, 4/10)
