{"id":5904,"date":"2015-02-12T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2015-02-12T14:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm\/?p=5904"},"modified":"2015-02-12T09:00:50","modified_gmt":"2015-02-12T14:00:50","slug":"head-examiner-neurologist-ann-mckee-talks-about-battered-brains-tangled-tau-and-the-future-of-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2015\/02\/12\/head-examiner-neurologist-ann-mckee-talks-about-battered-brains-tangled-tau-and-the-future-of-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Head Examiner: Neurologist Ann McKee talks about battered brains, tangled tau, and the future of sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2015\/01\/27\/years-of-battering-took-toll-on-1980s-patriots-star-mosi-tatupu\/ann-mckee-300x300-150x150\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5784\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/camed\/files\/2015\/01\/ann-mckee-300x300-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"ann-mckee-300x300-150x150\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5784\" \/><\/a>BU Research<\/h3>\n<h4>Ann McKee, MD, neurology and pathology<\/h4>\n<p>For Ann McKee, every brain tells a story. And sometimes it\u2019s a tragic one. McKee, a professor of neurology and pathology at the Boston University School of Medicine (MED), is the director of neuropathology for the Veterans Affairs New England Healthcare System, and also directs BU\u2019s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a degenerative brain disease found in athletes with a history of repetitive brain trauma. McKee first identified its telltale mark\u2014tiny tangles of a protein called tau, clustered around blood vessels\u2014in the dissected brain of a boxer who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n<h3>Expert quote:<\/h3>\n<p>The thing that is shocking to me, and continues to be shocking, are the 25-year-olds who have died with this disease. Not because of it\u2014it\u2019s usually a suicide or an accidental death. I can\u2019t say that CTE caused their suicide. But for me, it\u2019s shocking to see neurodegenerative disease in a 25-year-old. It\u2019s horrible. And it\u2019s undeniable. We\u2019ve seen it in enough 20-somethings now that you can\u2019t escape this. It\u2019s a shock to think, \u201cThat guy looks so young, and he\u2019s dead. And he\u2019s dead with this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/research\/articles\/head-examiner\/\">full article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BU Research Ann McKee, MD, neurology and pathology For Ann McKee, every brain tells a story. And sometimes it\u2019s a tragic one. McKee, a professor of neurology and pathology at the Boston University School of Medicine (MED), is the director of neuropathology for the Veterans Affairs New England Healthcare System, and also directs BU\u2019s Chronic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[126],"tags":[140],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5904"}],"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\/7398"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}