Researchers Are Developing a Method to Identify CTE in Living Athletes

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Published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, a new study reveals researchers are close to being able to diagnose athletes with CTE — the degenerative brain disease that’s been linked to frequent blows to the head — while they are still alive.

By comparing the brains of 26 former NFL players experiencing thinking problems to the brains of 31 similarly aged men without symptoms or a history of head injuries, researchers found the football players’ brains had higher levels of an abnormal protein tied to CTE.

The research represents a serious breakthrough in the sports medicine community, as CTE-related signs have previously only been identifiable via brain autopsy. While researchers aren’t sure if the presence of the protein will be enough to 100% determine if a particular player does or does not have CTE, they are hopeful that such a development is on the horizon.