This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.
Abstract
Objective: The goal of this study was to examine the clinical presentation of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in neuropathologically confirmed cases.
Methods: Thirty-six adult male subjects were selected from all cases of neuropathologically confirmed CTE at the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy brain bank. Subjects were all athletes, had no comorbid neurodegenerative or motor neuron disease, and had next-of-kin informants to provide retrospective reports of the subjects' histories and clinical presentations. These interviews were conducted blind to the subjects' neuropathologic findings.
Results: A triad of cognitive, behavioral, and mood impairments was common overall, with cognitive deficits reported for almost all subjects. Three subjects were asymptomatic at the time of death. Consistent with earlier case reports of boxers, 2 relatively distinct clinical presentations emerged, with one group whose initial features developed at a younger age and involved behavioral and/or mood disturbance (n = 22), and another group whose initial presentation developed at an older age and involved cognitive impairment (n = 11).
Conclusions: This suggests there are 2 major clinical presentations of CTE, one a behavior/mood variant and the other a cognitive variant.
GLOSSARY
- AD=
- Alzheimer disease;
- CSTE=
- Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy;
- CTE=
- chronic traumatic encephalopathy;
- p-tau=
- hyperphosphorylated tau;
- RBT=
- repetitive brain trauma;
- TBI=
- traumatic brain injury
Footnotes
Go to Neurology.org for full disclosures. Funding information and disclosures deemed relevant by the authors, if any, are provided at the end of the article.
↵* These authors contributed equally to this work.
- Received March 16, 2013.
- Accepted in final form June 18, 2013.
- © 2013 American Academy of Neurology
AAN Members
We have changed the login procedure to improve access between AAN.com and the Neurology journals. If you are experiencing issues, please log out of AAN.com and clear history and cookies. (For instructions by browser, please click the instruction pages below). After clearing, choose preferred Journal and select login for AAN Members. You will be redirected to a login page where you can log in with your AAN ID number and password. When you are returned to the Journal, your name should appear at the top right of the page.
AAN Non-Member Subscribers
Purchase access
Letters: Rapid online correspondence
- Authors' Reply: A false chronic traumatic encephalopathy dichotomy
- A false chronic traumatic encephalopathy dichotomy
REQUIREMENTS
You must ensure that your Disclosures have been updated within the previous six months. Please go to our Submission Site to add or update your Disclosure information.
Your co-authors must send a completed Publishing Agreement Form to Neurology Staff (not necessary for the lead/corresponding author as the form below will suffice) before you upload your comment.
If you are responding to a comment that was written about an article you originally authored:
You (and co-authors) do not need to fill out forms or check disclosures as author forms are still valid
and apply to letter.
Submission specifications:
- Submissions must be < 200 words with < 5 references. Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting.
- Submissions should not have more than 5 authors. (Exception: original author replies can include all original authors of the article)
- Submit only on articles published within 6 months of issue date.
- Do not be redundant. Read any comments already posted on the article prior to submission.
- Submitted comments are subject to editing and editor review prior to posting.
You May Also be Interested in
More Online
Topics Discussed
Alert Me
Recommended articles
Association of Position Played and Career Duration and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy at Autopsy in Elite Football and Hockey Players
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy and athletes
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Consensus Diagnostic Criteria for Traumatic Encephalopathy Syndrome
Evaluating and treating neurobehavioral symptoms in professional American football players