NEW YORK (AP) – A brain-scanning technique might one day help identify people with a disease linked to concussions in football and other sports, an illness now diagnosed only after death, a small study suggests.
Scans of 14 retired football players at risk for the condition, called CTE, revealed deposits of abnormal protein in a pattern resembling that found at autopsy in the disease.
CTE stands for chronic traumatic encephalopathy. It causes progressive brain degeneration in athletes and others who’ve had repeated concussions and other blows to the head. Symptoms include memory loss, confusion, aggression, depression and progressive dementia.
No cure is known. But the brain-scanning approach raises the possibility of detecting the disease early on, when the chances would be greatest for success of experimental treatments, study authors said.
It might also shed light on the disease and help athletes with decisions on retirement, said a study author, Dr. Julian Bailes, co-director of the NorthShore Neurological Institute in Evanston, Illinois.