ReviewActa neuropathologica communications2023
Severe CTE and TDP-43 pathology in a former professional soccer player with dementia: a clinicopathological case report and review of the literature.
Review in Acta neuropathologica communications, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cognitive Impairment and Dementia-Related Diagnoses in Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Cognitive and Behavioral Functioning in Female Former Soccer Players: Results from the Head Impact and Trauma Surveillance Study (HITSS).Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Brain MRI findings associated with soccer heading: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Neuroradiology · 2026Review
- Advancing biomarker development for chronic traumatic encephalopathy: Summary and recommendations from the 2025 Leon Thal Summit.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Chronic traumatic encephalopathy neuropathologic change is associated with highest stage limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy.Journal of neuropathology and experimental neurology · 2026Article
- Alterations in CSF Amyloid-β and Tau Biomarkers in Former College and Professional American Football Players: Findings from the DIAGNOSE CTE Research Project.Journal of neurotrauma · 2026Observational
- The mechanisms underlying TDP-43-associated neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Review
- Plasma and MRI biomarkers capture neuronal damage in former professional boxers.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Enlarged cavum septum pellucidum as a neuroimaging signature of head impact exposure.Brain communications · 2025Article
- TDP-43-proteinopathy at the crossroads of tauopathy: on copathology and current and prospective biomarkers.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2025Review
- Functional connectivity changes in neurodegenerative biomarker-positive athletes with repeated concussions.Journal of neurology · 2024Article
- Neurotrauma: 2024 update.Free neuropathology · 2024Article
- Updated Review of Neurologic Concussion Biomarkers for Time-sensitive Point-of-care Testing.Journal of emergencies, trauma, and shockReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
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 well as astrocytic and oligodendroglial tau pathology in terms of tufted astrocytes, thorn-shaped astrocytes, and coiled bodies. Additionally, there were TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) positive cytoplasmic inclusions in the frontal lobe and hippocampus, and Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) positivity in the axons of the white matter. A systematic review of the literature revealed only 13 other soccer players with postmortem diagnosis of CTE. Our report illustrates the complex clinicopathological correlation of CTE and the need for disease-specific biomarkers.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.