Severe CTE and TDP-43 pathology in a former professional soccer player with dementia: a clinicopathological case report and review of the literature.

ABSTRACT: In the last decades, numerous post-mortem case series have documented chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in former contact-sport athletes, though reports of CTE pathology in former soccer players are scarce. This study presents a clinicopathological case of a former professional soccer player with young-onset dementia. The patient experienced early onset progressive cognitive decline and developed dementia in his mid-50 s, after playing soccer for 12 years at a professional level. While the clinical picture mimicked Alzheimer's disease, amyloid PET imaging did not provide evidence of elevated beta-amyloid plaque density. After he died in his mid-60 s, brain autopsy showed severe phosphorylated tau (p-tau) abnormalities fulfilling the neuropathological criteria for high-stage CTE, as we

SUBMITTER: van Amerongen S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10169296 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature