Evidence of brain damage found in former footballers

London: Evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a potential cause of dementia caused by repeated blows to the head, has been found in the brains of former association football (soccer) players examined at the UCL Queen Square Brain Bank. The study, funded by The Drake Foundation and published in the journal Acta Neuropathologica, looked at 14 retired footballers with dementia who were referred to the Old Age Psychiatry Service in Swansea, Wales, between 1980 and 2010. Permission from their next-of-kin was provided to perform post-mortem examinations, which were carried out in six ex-players. Post-mortem analysis of the brain was carried out by researchers from UCL and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.

Legal and ethical factors that affect NFL players’ health

Harvard: The Football Players Health Study at Harvard University today released a set of legal and ethical recommendations to address a series of structural factors that affect NFL player health. The Football Players Health Study is a research initiative composed of several ongoing studies examining the health and wellbeing of NFL players. The newly released report, nearly 500 pages long, is based on analysis performed over two years by researchers from The Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School, and is unprecedented both in scope and focus. (Read the executive summary).

Brain Changes Seen in Youth Football Players Without Concussion

Wake Forest; Researchers have found measurable brain changes in children after a single season of playing youth football, even without a concussion diagnosis, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology. According to USA Football, there are approximately 3 million young athletes participating in organized tackle football across the country. Numerous reports have emerged in recent years about the possible risks of brain injury while playing youth sports and the effects it may have on developing brains. However, most of the research has looked at changes in the brain as a result of concussion.

Who are the top football teams in the health league?

TheConversation: “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death,” Bill Shankly, Liverpool FC’s manager between 1959 and 1974, once said. “I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that”. Now imagine the newspaper headlines if at the end of the football season three of the biggest English football clubs – Manchester City, Everton and Liverpool – were relegated from the league. If football were really a matter of life and death, this is exactly what would happen.

Study Examines Incidence of Concussion in Youth, High School, College Football

JAMA: A slight majority of concussions happened during youth football games but most concussions at the high school and college levels occurred during practice, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics. Football is a popular youth sport with approximately 3 million youth athletes, 1.1 million high school athletes and 100,000 college athletes playing tackle football each year. A report on concussion by the Institute of Medicine highlighted the need for more extensive data on incidence in athletes from youth to college.

Study finds characteristic pattern of protein deposits in brains of retired NFL players who suffered concussions

UCLA: A new UCLA study takes another step toward the early understanding of a degenerative brain condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, which affects athletes in contact sports who are exposed to repetitive brain injuries. Using a new imaging tool, researchers found a strikingly similar pattern of abnormal protein deposits in the brains of retired NFL players who suffered from concussions.

In case of a cruciate ligament rupture, the load-bearing capacity of the cruciate ligament replacement can be precisely evaluated using a new imaging process

Vienna University. Austria: A footballer is able to play football again or to recommence training six months after an operation on a cruciate ligament rupture in case of a normal healing process. This interruption is common in professional football, but it is merely an empirical value, as Siegfried Trattnig from the University Clinic for Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at the MedUni Wien (Medical University of Vienna) has emphasised. In future, however, it will be possible to evaluate precisely both the load-bearing capacity of the "new" cruciate ligament and the risk of a renewed rupture using a new imaging process methodologically developed for clinical use at the MedUni Wien, with which the biomechanical properties of the knee and the cruciate ligament can be measured. 

Study of Former NFL Players Reveals Specifics of Concussive Brain Damage

Johns Hopkins. US: A team of Johns Hopkins specialists, using a battery of imaging and cognitive tests, has gathered evidence of accumulated brain damage that could be linked to specific memory deficits in former National Football League (NFL) players experienced decades after they stopped playing the game.

High School Football Players Show Brain Changes after One Season

Radiological Society North America. US: High school football players may develop impact-related brain changes over the course of a single season. Players who experience higher levels of head impacts show the most changes, even in the absence of concussion. It remains unclear whether or not these changes will be associated with any negative long-term consequences.