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Citation
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Schwab N, Wennberg R, Grenier K, Tartaglia C, Tator C, Hazrati LN. Neurology 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub. |
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Abstract
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OBJECTIVE: To determine whether an association exists between career duration or position played and the presence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) at autopsy in a series of elite football and hockey players.
METHODS: This retrospective cohort study analyzed post-mortem brains of 35 former football or hockey players (29 professional, 6 university varsity/major junior), with the presence of CTE at autopsy as the primary outcome. Position played (highest level), age at retirement (indicator of lifetime exposure to sport), and hockey fighting/penalization histories (surrogate marker for role/style of play) were collected. A blinded neuropathological evaluation of each participant was performed, providing an assessment for neurodegenerative diseases including CTE, based on the 2015 NINDS/NIBIB consensus paper.
RESULTS: In total, 17/35 former players (48.6%) showed pathological evidence of CTE. There was no correlation found between position played and CTE presence, nor between hockey fighting/penalization histories and CTE, in either the football or hockey groups (P>0.75, Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon). Similarly, there was no association between age of retirement and CTE presence (P>0.5, Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon). In 24/35 cases (68.6%) other neuropathologies were present, 13/24 (54.2%) of which were co-existent with CTE.
CONCLUSION: In this cohort of 35 former collision sports athletes, no significant associations were found between career duration, position or role played and CTE presence at autopsy. Although limited by the small and non-representative sample studied, these findings suggest that non-sport factors may be important to understand differing susceptibilities among athletes to CTE.
Keywords: American football; Canadian football; Ice hockey
Language: en |