
Autopsy is currently the only way to definitively diagnose chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease often seen in athletes who’ve suffered repeated blows to the head. But there may be a way to predict which athletes are likely to develop CTE, researchers report June 28 in the journal Neurology. They outline criteria for a condition called traumatic encephalopathy syndrome, where CTE is suspected based on cognitive impairment, behavior changes and other factors. “These findings suggest that this new diagnosis of traumatic encephalopathy syndrome may be useful in professional sports such as boxing and mixed martial arts and may be helpful in predicting who may experience cognitive decline,” study co-author Brooke Conway Kleven said in a journal news release. She is with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Public Health. CTE was originally studied in boxers as “punch-drunk syndrome.” The progressive and fatal brain disease is linked to the development of dementia. For the new study, researchers studied 130 active and retired professional fighters in boxing, martial arts and mixed martial arts. They were a part of a brain health study run by the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Participants had brain scans and took cognitive tests when the study began. Researchers found that those who met the criteria for traumatic encephalopathy syndrome had greater declines in brain volume. These participants also had… read on > read on >