CTE found in two women who endured decades of violence in first Australian case report
Associate Professor Michael Buckland says the abnormal tau patterns in the women were 'identical' to those seen in contact sports players.
Two women who endured decades of intimate partner abuse have become the first in Australia to be diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy in the context of domestic violence.
The women, one in her 40s and the other in her 30s, had presented with more than 35 head injuries between them over two decades, the authors wrote in Acta Neuropathologica.
One died of impact trauma after being struck by a car and the other from blunt force injuries in an alleged assault.
Following their deaths, pathologists from the University of Sydney, the Royal Darwin Hospital and the University of Adelaide studied their medical records and brain tissue.
