CTE diagnosed in a female pro athlete for the first time

Heather Anderson, an Australian rules football player who died by suicide last year at 28, has been posthumously diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), according to a new paper published in Acta Neuropathologica.

And while CTE has been previously found in male athletes participating in contact sports like MMA or football, this marks the first case of the degenerative brain disease being diagnosed in a female professional athlete.

🤔 What is CTE?... a progressive and fatal brain disease associated with concussions and repeated impacts to the head. Symptoms include memory loss, progressive dementia, impulse control problems, and depression, but it can only be officially diagnosed after death via a brain-tissue analysis.

Beyond that, our understanding of the disease is limited – but it’s starting to show up in contact sports like mosquitoes around stagnant water.

• A 2017 study found 87% of donated brains from former high-school, college, and professional football players showed signs of the disease. Former NFL players included in the study showed signs of CTE more than 99% of the time (110/111).
• In comparison, a 2018 Boston University study of the general population found only one CTE case in 164 autopsies – and the one person with CTE had played college football.

🧠 Bottom line: Per the newly-published paper: “As the representation of women in professional contact sports is growing, it seems likely that more CTE cases will be identified… [and] Given females’ greater susceptibility to concussion, there is an urgent need to recognize the risks, and to institute strategies and policies to minimize traumatic brain injuries.”