Session Information
Date: Thursday, November 14, 2019
Session Title: Musculoskeletal and Sports Medicine Research Report
Session Time: 12:30pm-2:00pm
Location: Research Hub - Kiosk 8
Disclosures: Daniel H. Daneshvar: Nothing to disclose
Objective: To determine the neuropathological and clinical features of deceased football players with CTE.
Design: Neuropathological evaluations and retrospective telephone clinical assessments (including head trauma history) with informants were performed blinded. Online questionnaires ascertained athletic and military history.
Setting: Academic medical center
Participants: 202 football players whose brains were donated for research.
Interventions: Not applicable
Main Outcome Measures: Neuropathological diagnoses of neurodegenerative diseases based on defined diagnostic criteria, including CTE; informant-reported athletic history and, for players who died in 2014 or later, clinical presentation, including behavior, mood, and cognitive symptoms and dementia.
Results: Among 202 deceased former football players (median age at death, 66 years [interquartile range, 47-76 years]), CTE was neuropathologically diagnosed in 177 players (87%; median age at death, 67 years [interquartile range, 52-77 years]; mean years of football participation, 15.1 [SD, 5.2]), including 0 of 2 pre-high school, 3 of 14 high school (21%), 48 of 53 college (91%), 9 of 14 semiprofessional (64%), 7 of 8 Canadian Football League (88%), and 110 of 111 National Football League (99%) players. Neuropathological severity of CTE was distributed across the highest level of play, with all 3 former high school players having mild pathology and the majority of former college (27 [56%]), semiprofessional (5 [56%]), and professional (101 [86%]) players having severe pathology. Among 27 participants with mild CTE pathology, 26 (96%) had behavioral or mood symptoms or both, 23 (85%) had cognitive symptoms, and 9 (33%) had signs of dementia. Among 84 participants with severe CTE pathology, 75 (89%) had behavioral or mood symptoms or both, 80 (95%) had cognitive symptoms, and 71 (85%) had signs of dementia.
Conclusions: In a convenience sample of deceased football players who donated their brains for research, a high proportion had neuropathological evidence of CTE, suggesting that CTE may be related to prior participation in football.
Level of Evidence: Level III
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Daneshvar DH, Mez J, McKee A. Clinicopathological Evaluation of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy [abstract]. PM R. 2019; 11(S2)(suppl 2). https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/clinicopathological-evaluation-of-chronic-traumatic-encephalopathy/. Accessed May 15, 2025.« Back to AAPM&R Annual Assembly 2019
PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/clinicopathological-evaluation-of-chronic-traumatic-encephalopathy/