The mysterious disease is only diagnosed after the patient has died, because the doctor needs to cut their brain

It is difficult to come up with a diagnostic criterion based on narration, "said Dr. Rebekah Mannix, head of the Department of Brain Injury at Children's Hospital Boston.

The brain in this picture once belonged to a professional rugby player. Its size is much larger than other average brains. Perhaps, its former owner must be very athletic - a player playing in the lineman position for example.

But that's all you can guess, before Ann McKee started cutting that brain to pieces. A few minutes later, a new mystery was revealed: The player's brain was hurt a lot.

Mystery inside the football player's brain slices

" I think this guy has been CTE , " McKee said. She is currently a professor of neurology and pathology at Boston Medical University, and also a neurologist at the New England Veterans Administration Medical Center.

The initial assessment of tissue atrophy and shrinkage in some brain areas is so. But McKee will have to test the tissue on the microscope to be sure: Is it true that this player has a neurodegenerative disorder, a mysterious disease known by experts as an injury Chronic skull brain (CTE) .

Ann McKee (right) professor of neurology and pathology at Boston Medical University

If you are in the lab to observe the Mckee surgery, you will see her cut it into slices like cutting a loaf of bread. Each time she finished cutting, she stopped to show you abnormal signs in it.

" What these players do with their brains is amazing, " Mckee repeated with a bit of frustration.

Mckee dissects the brain, cutting it out like a loaf of bread

In the laboratory of the VA hospital campus just outside Boston, she runs a leading brain bank in the US studying the effects of brain injury.

A few years back, McKee's lab has become a familiar place with professional rugby players. They come here, or their families will come to donate their brains after death. The goal is to help scientists deepen and understand CTE.

Chronic cerebral trauma has been studied in the last 15 years, including a prominent study from McKee's group, linked to activities that cause repeated head tremors.

The disease shows external symptoms including cognitive difficulties, mood disorders, headaches, showing aggressive behavior and suicidal thoughts. Rugby players and other sports such as soccer, hockey are the easiest subjects to get CTE.

Rugby players and other sports such as soccer, hockey are the easiest subjects to get CTE.

The brain of McKee's rugged football player calmly undergoing surgery is telling an undeniable story about what the sport has done to it. The pushes, falls and dispute situations are certainly beyond the protection of helmets.

McKee and colleagues found evidence of chronic brain injury in 88/92 brains of former NFL players, and in 45/55 brains of players who played rugby for college football. learn.

Pathological signs are only detected in brain slices after the patient has died.

But McKee admits one thing, the products she has in her lab do not tell the popularity of the disease. In many cases, players or their families already know or suspect they have CTE before donating their brain.

At the beginning of the study of chronic brain injury, McKee thought that for a patient to have CTE, they must have a head injury. But the deeper she studied, the more she and her colleagues realized that it was not true.

McKee and a series of donated brain slices

About 20% of people are diagnosed with CTE with head injury but they have never been shocked. There are also cases of patients with head concussions very much but did not develop disease.

All shows that CTE is still a mysterious disease. Many unanswered questions are raising a debate in the scientific community about the relationship between exposure to head tremors, symptoms of the disease and pathological signs that are only detected in the slices. cut the brain after the patient is dead.

" It is difficult to come up with a diagnostic criterion based on narration, " said Dr. Rebekah Mannix, head of the Department of Brain Injury at Children's Hospital Boston. Even if a person is exposed to a frequent head injury, such as rugby players, CTE can only be diagnosed after they die.

CTE is still a mysterious disease

Now, with his research, McKee hopes she can contribute to changing that harsh reality. With the data gathered from donated brains, McKee said she began to find a link between CTE and the hits below the threshold.

These are situations that cause the brain to vibrate but not intense enough to cause serious brain cell damage. Usually, these bumps do not show symptoms, but repetition can be an explanation for CTE.

In order to be able to study the chronic brain injury in a more precise and accurate way, McKey said science will need volunteer football players to wear accelerometers for life or at least during their competition. To test.

Part of the answer lies within the brain that McKee is still cutting out on the table.

Ideally, such studies should also keep track of both diet, mental performance and other health aspects of the players. After having all the data, the last scientist can point out what are the biggest risks that cause CTE.

With such a vision, it may take several decades, scientific research can answer the mystery of this disease. Why and how does CTE accumulate and arise?