100 former NFL players to be part of three-year CTE analysis project – NFL News
As many as 100 retired players of the premier American football league, National Football League (NFL) will be part of a study on a degenerative brain disease in former athletes.
The study is conducted by the Centre for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, School of Medicine, Boston University.
The Centre has already examined brains of about 70 former athletes. It is now starting a three-year study on the living patients. An extensive testing and analysis of the new group of athletes has already been done on last Wednesday
and Thursday.
In addition to including the former NFL players, the University will recruit about 50 retired elite athletes from other sports including non-contact sports. The recruits from other non-contact sports will be included to do a comparative
analysis, the American news agency, Associated Press (AP), has quoted co-director of the project Robert Stern as saying.
The project called 'DETECT" will be the first Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTC) study, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health, US. It is aimed at comparative analysis of NFL players and other athletes who have
been spared from the repeated blows to their heads.
Currently prevailed method to test brains to detect CTC is examination of brains after death. This will be first testing of brains in living athletes. "We need answers on this disease really quickly," Robert Stern said.
"There's a sense that former players want to be able to do something to not only potentially help themselves but also to help get the research moving quickly to help others in the future," he said.
The co-director of the project Dr Ann McKee said that the CTE was found in a group 50 former athletes in last year alone. The Groups included the NFL player Dave Duerson and National Hockey League (NHL) player Rick Martin.
The group of the new recruits would be flown to Boston where a variety of tests would be conducted on them. The players to be chosen for the study will include offensive and defensive lineman, defensive backs and linebackers. The
former players ages will range between 40 and 69 years, who suffer from some of the symptoms related to the CTE disease.
Tags: