Researchers announced in the scientific journal Neurosurgery last week that they had confirmed the ability to identifychronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in living patients (h/t John Keilman of the Chicago Tribune).
Per Keilman, four years ago the researchers discovered that "scans indicated the presence of tau, a protein that builds up over damaged neurological cells, in the brains of former NFL players," but the results still needed confirmation "since CTE can be definitively diagnosed only by examining brain tissue after a person’s death."
Now, Evanston's NorthShore University HealthSystem neurosurgeon Dr. Julian Bailes confirmed in the journal article that one of the former living players initially examined was found to be suffering from CTE following a postmortem examination.