‘Multifaceted pathology’ underlies dementia in chronic traumatic encephalopathy
Head impacts and atherosclerosis both likely have an effect on risk, researchers say
Neuropathological changes associated with dementia in men with chronic traumatic encephalopathy are only partially related to trauma, a post-mortem study shows.
US researchers investigated the association of white matter pathological changes and cerebrovascular disease with dementia in the brains of 180 deceased older men with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) who had played American football.
They focused on atherosclerosis, infarcts, microinfarcts, microbleeds and white matter rarefaction.
Of the 180 men who donated their brains, 120 had antemortem dementia. Because only a few had infarcts or microbleeds, these variables were not examined further.
