BU study finds more brain damage in former football players

[tk13]

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/...otball-players

This is a really long article... so I'll just post a couple excerpts, sounds like ESPN is going to do an entire special about this tomorrow afternoon.

Researchers at Boston University have discovered 28 new cases of chronic brain damage in deceased football players -- including 15 who played in the NFL -- more than doubling the number of documented cases connecting football to long-term brain disease.

The NFL players include two Hall of Famers: running back Ollie Matson, who played 14 seasons in the 1950s and 1960s, and Colts tight end John Mackey, who played 10 seasons and once served as the head of the NFL players' union. Both died last year after suffering from dementia.

The study examined brain tissue from 85 people with a history of repetitive head trauma, including military veterans, boxers and football and hockey players. Some of the cases had been previously reported. Sixty-eight were found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy -- a degenerative brain disorder linked to memory loss, depression and dementia.

According to the study, the BU researchers now have 50 confirmed cases of former football players with CTE -- 33 who played in the NFL, one in the CFL, one semi-professionally, nine through college and six who played only through high school. That included Nathan Stiles, 17, who died of a subdural hematoma after a hit in a 2010 high school homecoming game in Spring Hill, Kan.

"The sheer volume of cases I think is going to just overwhelm anybody that wants to be in denial about the existence of this problem," said Robert C. Cantu, a co-director of BU's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy and a senior adviser to the NFL on concussions.

Previously, CTE had been found in 18 of the 19 former NFL players whose brains were examined. The 15 new cases in the BU study mean that of the 34 brains of former NFL players that have been examined, 33 had the disease. Linemen made up 40 percent of those cases, supporting research that suggests repetitive head trauma occurring on every play -- not concussions associated with violent collisions -- may be the biggest risk. BU also reported CTE in four former NHL players.

The findings, published in the December issue of "Brain," a medical journal affiliated with Oxford University, are certain to feed the growing debate about the risks of playing football and the work of the BU research team, which has gained international recognition while arguing that football-induced brain damage is indisputable and possibly widespread.

---

The BU researchers say they have never drawn conclusions about the prevalence of CTE in football. Findings based exclusively on individual cases "will never establish the incidence or prevalence" of the disease but instead will lay the foundation for further research, the study states.

BU is drawing from a sample size that is "skewed beyond belief," acknowledged Cantu, because the brains invariably come from subjects who were profoundly impaired.

At the same time, McKee, Cantu and others describe the growing body of cases as significant and ominous, particularly for the NFL.

Cantu cited another recent study that examined death certificates of former NFL players and concluded they were four times more likely to suffer from neurodegenerative diseases.

"So probably at the lowest level, the incidence of CTE is four times greater in NFL players than the population at large would lead you to expect," Cantu said. "But that's really the bottom of what it is. And where, how much higher than that it is, we really don't know."

Long-term brain damage was first documented in boxers in the 1920s. It was not seen in football players until 2005, when a Pittsburgh pathologist, Bennet Omalu, diagnosed late Hall of Fame Steelers center Mike Webster with CTE -- a finding that was hotly contested by the NFL but is no longer disputed.

The data indicate that CTE advances both with exposure to head trauma and with age, according to the BU study. So typically, the longer a player spent in the NFL, the worse his case looked.

"We believe that this is a dose-related phenomenon -- not just to concussions but total brain trauma," said Cantu. "So clearly there's a relation to how many hits you've taken, and that does correlate with how long you played."

The NFL's $1 million research gift to BU in January 2010 acknowledged its right to conduct independent research, but the league also agreed to steer brains from former NFL players to the center's brain bank, which is administered jointly with the Veterans Administration. The bank currently holds 135 brains from military veterans, athletes and other subjects. More than 600 athletes have pledged to donate their brains to BU after their deaths.