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John Mackey passed away on July 11, 2011 and it wasn’t until Mackey’s family donated his brain to the Boston University brain bank that he was diagnosed with late-stage chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
According to Statita, The average length of a player’s NFL sports career is relatively short, averaging 3.3 years.
According to Statista, in 2020, it was estimated that about 6.8% of children and adolescents in the United States between the ages of 0 and 17 years had experienced symptoms of concussion or brain injury at some point in their lives.
Boston University researchers detected cases of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in 92% of former NFL players tested, as reported by the institution in an update of its study.
Boston University’s CTE Center studied the brains of 376 deceased former NFL players and diagnosed 345 of them with chronic traumatic encephalopathy. This represents 91.7% of the cases studied. Ann McKee, director of the university’s CTE Center and chief of neuropathology at the VA Boston Healthcare System, said the organization intended to provide an update on the study during the same week as Super Bowl 57.
“It’s a reminder of how complacent we’ve become,” he said in an interview with The Brink. “The NFL hasn’t done anything substantial to prevent or diagnose CTE, the risk is still there. The risk is high. That is why we have published it this week.”
Some of the players diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy are former members of each of the teams that will participate in this year’s Super Bowl. Former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Rick Arrington and former Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman Ed Lothamer, who won Super Bowl 4 with the team, both former NFL players have been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
How can chronic traumatic encephalopathy be diagnosed?
According to the Mayo Clinic, Currently, there is no way to diagnose chronic traumatic encephalopathy. It can only be suspected in people who are at high risk for this condition due to repeated head trauma over the years during their sports or military experiences. A diagnosis requires evidence of degeneration of brain tissue and deposits of tau and other proteins in the brain that can only be seen with postmortem inspection.
Some researchers are actively trying to find a test for chronic traumatic encephalopathy that can be used while people are alive. Others continue to study the brains of deceased people who may have suffered chronic traumatic encephalopathy, such as football players.
Over time, the hope is to use a variety of neuropsychological tests, brain imaging, such as specialized MRI tests, and biomarkers to diagnose chronic traumatic encephalopathy. In particular, imaging of amyloid and tau proteins will be helpful for diagnosis.
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