Today, the only way to detect chronic traumatic encephalopathy in a person is by examining their brain tissue after death. A confirmation could help explain cognitive impairments and mood disorders the person may have exhibited in life.
But what if you could make a diagnosis while the person was alive, before the onset of serious problems?
Robert Stern, professor of neurology, neurosurgery, and anatomy and neurobiology, and a team of researchers may be close to an answer.
Stern directs clinical research at the Boston University Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center. In a partnership of industry, academia, and healthcare, he and his colleagues discovered that an experimental PET (positron-emission tomography) scan on living people is able to detect abnormal brain tissue—called tau protein—in patterns similar to those found in the brains of deceased people diagnosed with CTE after death.
Tau protein is a hallmark of several neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, certain types of dementia, and CTE, which has appeared notably in dozens of former National Football League players.
Stern, along with collaborators from Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the Mayo Clinic, and the University of Arizona, published their findings this past spring in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“It can’t yet be used for individual diagnosis,” Stern cautions. “We analyzed group data, not individual findings.”
But by the end of 2019, Stern and collaborators expect to complete tau and amyloid scans of up to 240 additional people and move closer to their ultimate goal. “In the next five years or so, we will be able to diagnose and detect [CTE] during life.”