ArticleBrain pathology (Zurich, Switzerland)2020
Association between contact sports participation and chronic traumatic encephalopathy: a retrospective cohort study.
Article in Brain pathology (Zurich, Switzerland), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 65 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
65 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 110 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cognitive Impairment and Dementia-Related Diagnoses in Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Neurology · 2025Pooled it
- A systematic review on the risk of neurodegenerative diseases and neurocognitive disorders in professional and varsity athletes.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2022Pooled it
- Mortality Risk from Neurodegenerative Disease in Sports Associated with Repetitive Head Impacts: Preliminary Findings from a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2022Pooled it
- A global collaboration to study intimate partner violence-related head trauma: The ENIGMA consortium IPV working group.Brain imaging and behavior · 2021Pooled it
- Comparing perceptions of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) across health care disciplines.PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Associations Between Cumulative Head Trauma and Self-Reported Parkinsonism and Parkinson's Disease in Former Soccer Players.Movement disorders : official journal of the Movement Disorder Society · 2026Article
- Cortical subpial aging-related tau astrogliopathy in older adult men who participated in youth amateur American-style football.Journal of neuropathology and experimental neurology · 2026Article
- Plasma Phosphorylated Tau 217 in Participants at Risk for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Clinicopathological study of chronic traumatic encephalopathy pathology in a population-based cohort.Journal of neuropathology and experimental neurology · 2026Article
- Imaging the later-life white matter pathologies of repetitive head impacts: A novel pattern revealed through T2 FLAIR MRI.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Proteomic Analysis of Human Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Brain Implicates Proteasome and Ribosome Dysfunction in Disease Progression.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- CTE neuropathology alone is associated with dementia and cognitive symptoms.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Strenuous physical activity is associated with a younger age of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis onset in two independent cohorts.Brain communications · 2026Article
- Chronic traumatic encephalopathy neuropathologic change in the Late Effects of Traumatic Brain Injury project: Findings in a community autopsy cohort.Journal of neuropathology and experimental neurology · 2025Article
- Chronic traumatic encephalopathy: State-of-the-science update and narrative review.The Clinical neuropsychologist · 2025Review
- CTE-Type Tau Filaments in Alzheimer's Disease with Co-morbid LATE-NC.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Clinical and Neuropsychological Profiles in People With Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Neuropathologic Change: Matched Case-Series Study.Neurology · 2025Article
- Interrogating the plasma proteome of repetitive head impact exposure and chronic traumatic encephalopathy.Molecular neurodegeneration · 2025Article
- Neurobiology and Impact of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in Athletes: A Focused Review.Cureus · 2025Review
- The prevalence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in a historical epilepsy post-mortem collection.Brain pathology (Zurich, Switzerland) · 2025Article
5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder associated with repetitive traumatic brain injuries often sustained through prior contact sport participation. The frequency of this disorder in a diverse population, including amateur athletes, is unknown. Primary historical obituary and yearbook records were queried for 2566 autopsy cases in the Mayo Clinic Tissue Registry resulting in identification of 300 former athletes and 450 non-athletes. In these cases, neocortical tissue was screened for tau pathology with immunohistochemistry, including pathology consistent with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, blinded to exposure or demographic information. Using research infrastructure of the Rochester Epidemiology Project, a comprehensive and established medical records-linkage system of care providers in southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin, medical diagnostic billing codes pertaining to head trauma, dementia, movement disorders, substance abuse disorders and psychiatric disorders were recorded for cases and controls in a blinded manner. A total of 42 individuals had pathology consistent with, or features of, chronic traumatic encephalopathy. It was more frequent in athletes compared to non-athletes (27 cases versus 15 cases) and was largely observed in men (except for one woman). For contact sports, American football had the highest frequency of chronic traumatic encephalopathy pathology (15% of cases) and an odds ratio of 2.62 (P-value = 0.005). Cases with chronic traumatic encephalopathy pathology had higher frequencies of antemortem clinical features of dementia, psychosis, movement disorders and alcohol abuse compared to cases without chronic traumatic encephalopathy pathology. Understanding the frequency of chronic traumatic encephalopathy pathology in a large autopsy cohort with diverse exposure backgrounds provides a baseline for future prospective studies assessing the epidemiology and public health impact of chronic traumatic encephalopathy and sports-related repetitive head trauma.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.