Professors Contribute to Top JAMA Articles.

School of Public Health researchers contributed to two of the top 10 most-talked-about articles published by JAMA in 2017.

“Clinicopathological Evaluation of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in Players of American Football” headed the list as the most-talked-about article of 2017 as measured by Altmetric, which provides a quantitative measure of the attention each scholarly article receives in traditional and social media.

The article was widely referenced throughout media for its findings that nearly all 202 deceased former football players suspected of having chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) were actually found to have it after neuropathological brain scans. CTE was diagnosed in 177 players across all levels of play (87 percent), including in 110 of 111 former National Football League players (99 percent).

Current and former SPH co-authors were Yorghos Tripodis, research associate professor of biostatistics; Jennifer Weuve, associate professor of epidemiology; Michael McClean, professor of environmental health and associate dean for research; Brett Martin, statistical manager of the Biostatistics and Epidemiology Data Analytics Center (BEDAC), formerly the Data Coordinating Center (DCC); and Christine Chaisson, former director of the DCC.

“Effect of Intra-articular Triamcinolone vs Saline on Knee Cartilage Volume and Pain in Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis: A Randomized Clinical Trial,” co-authored by Michael LaValley, professor of biostatistics, was number 5 on JAMA’s list of most-discussed articles.

The article detailed the findings of a two-year clinical trial of repeated injections of triamcinolone acetonide, a synthetic corticosteroid, to test the benefits and harms in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. Researchers found that injecting the corticosteroid into knees with osteoarthritis and inflammation resulted in significantly greater cartilage volume loss and no significant difference in knee pain than did saline injections.