Scientists have made a breakthrough for the early diagnosis of a brain disorder that affects some of Australia’s great soccer, which could lead to previously impossible treatment.
Repeated head blows, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is no different from Alzheimer’s, is often found in the stars of the Rugby and AFL League.
An autopsy after death has been the only method of a certain diagnosis so far.
CTE symptoms include memory loss, confusion, deteriorated judgment, mood changes and motor problems, but you can only make a diagnosis by examining the brain after death.
Now, neuroscientists in New Zealand have made an advance for early tests using brain tissue mainly from former rugby players.
“What we find essentially is that there is an inflammation pattern around the blood vessels in CTE that is different from what we see in people who do not have the disease,” said research partner at the University of Auckland, Dr. Helen Murray.
The distinctive characteristics of CTE are brown lesions in the brain, abnormal proteins called Tau no different from Alzheimer’s disease, but in different areas.
The associated professor and director of the Bank of Brain Sports of Australia, Dr. Michael Buckland, said that these findings could pave the way for a blood analysis to diagnose CTE before.
“If these changes occurred or preceded by CTE, it is a possibility that they can intervene, treat people from the beginning,” he said.
Dr. Murray said that the previous diagnosis can mean that CTE can be treated during someone’s life through “pharmaceutical products, rest and let that inflammation disappear.”
The NRL Wally Lewis legend has been diagnosed with probable CTE through this new method.
“It simply became almost monotonous, where I couldn’t remember what they had told me in a general daily conversation,” Lewis told 9News from his Syptoms.
Other great NRL sports ones, including Steve Folks and Paul Green, were diagnosed with CTE after death, while the distinctive stamps of the disease were also found in the brain of the 20 -year rising star, Keith Titmuss.
AFL stars, such as Graham “Polly” Farmer, Shane Tuck, Danny Frawley, and women’s prime minister, Heather Anderson, were also diagnosed with CTE through the autopsy.
The NRL is taking the problem seriously, presenting a series of measures to protect players, including a mandatory 11 -day delay for anyone who meets brain shock.
Dr. Buckland says that a living diagnosis will occur with a new technology and financing, with a significant possible progress in the coming years.
“I can see that in the reach, I think we are approaching,” he said.
“It is the first time that Brain Banks of Australia, New Zealand and the United States have collaborated to work together in a specific problem.
