{"id":26565,"date":"2015-12-16T09:48:37","date_gmt":"2015-12-16T14:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm\/?p=26565"},"modified":"2015-12-16T09:50:17","modified_gmt":"2015-12-16T14:50:17","slug":"cte-confirmed-as-a-unique-disease-definitively-diagnosed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2015\/12\/16\/cte-confirmed-as-a-unique-disease-definitively-diagnosed\/","title":{"rendered":"CTE Confirmed as a Unique Disease, Definitively Diagnosed"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time, CTE has been confirmed as a unique disease that can be definitively diagnosed by neuropathological examination of brain tissue. A consensus panel of expert neuropathologists concluded that CTE has a pathognomonic signature in the brain, an advance that represents a milestone for CTE research and lays the foundation for future studies defining the clinical symptoms, genetic risk factors and therapeutic strategies for CTE.<\/p>\n

The neuropathological criteria defining CTE, or the NINDS CTE criteria, which appear in the journal Acta Neuropathologica, had been announced earlier this year at the Foundation of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) board meeting.<\/p>\n

\"Lou
Lou Creekmur, a former Detroit Lions lineman and eight-time Pro Bowl player, died in 2009 from dementia. Upon examination Mr. Creekmur\u2019s brain had substantial evidence of CTE. This image shows dense tau deposits (brown) in the insula (1), temporal (2) and frontal (3) cortices, amygdala (4) and hippocampus (5) in the absence of beta amyloid plaques. A normal control brain would not show any brown discoloration. Photo courtesy of BU CTE Center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CTE is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in persons with a history of repetitive brain trauma, including symptomatic concussions as well as asymptomatic sub-concussive hits to the head. The trauma triggers progressive degeneration of the brain tissue, including the build-up of an abnormal protein called tau. These changes in the brain can begin months, years or even decades after the last brain trauma or end of active athletic involvement. The brain degeneration is associated with memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, and, eventually, progressive dementia.<\/p>\n

A consensus panel of seven neuropathologists independently reviewed slides from 25 cases of different diseases associated with tau deposits in the brain, completely blinded to all clinical information, including age, sex, clinical symptoms and athletic exposure using provisional diagnostic criteria for CTE developed by Ann McKee, MD, Director of the CTE Program at Boston University and Chief of Neuropathology, VA Boston Healthcare System. The neuropathologists concluded that the criteria distinguished CTE from other tauopathies, including aging and Alzheimer\u2019s disease, and that CTE had a unique pathological signature in the brain.<\/p>\n

According to McKee, neuropathologists agreed on the diagnosis of CTE and confirmed the interim standards. \u201cThe specific feature considered unique to CTE was the abnormal perivascular accumulation of tau in neurons, astrocytes and cell processes in an irregular pattern at the depths of the cortical sulci,\u201d explained McKee who is corresponding author of the study. \u201cThis lesion was not characteristic of any of the other disorders, including Alzheimer\u2019s disease, age-related tauopathy or progressive supranuclear palsy, and has only been found in individuals who were exposed to brain trauma, typically multiple episodes,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Funding for this study was provided by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (1U01NS086659-01, R01NS078337, R56NS078337, R01NS095252), Department of Defense (W81XWH-13-2-0064, W81XWH-14-1-0399), Department of Veterans Affairs, the Veterans Affairs Biorepository (CSP 501), the National Institute of Aging Boston University Alzheimer\u2019s Disease Center (P30AG13846; supplement 0572063345\u20135), Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Alzheimer\u2019s Research Program (DoD-PRARP #13267017), the National Institute of Aging Boston University Framingham Heart Study (R01AG1649), the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment and the Concussion Legacy Foundation. This work was also supported by unrestricted gifts from the Andlinger Foundation, WWE and the National Football League as well as by grants P50 AG05681 and P01 AG03991 from the National Institute on Aging (NJC).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the first time, CTE has been confirmed as a unique disease that can be definitively diagnosed by neuropathological examination of brain tissue. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91,90],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26565"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26565"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26571,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26565\/revisions\/26571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}