Downside of Landmark Brain-Trauma Test: The Grief of an Uncertain Future

January 23, 2013   ·   Will Carroll   ·   Jump to comments

A new test, as reported Tuesday by ESPN, is being described by several experts in the brain injury field as the "holy grail" of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). But science still has a long way to go in determining the condition's relation to concussions and in finding ways to counteract it. In the meantime, athletes might find the test results very difficult to live with.
In the study, scientists at UCLA discovered proteins associated with the brain disorder, marking the first time that living people (in this case ex-players with at least one documented concussion) were found to have markers. Up to this point, all diagnoses of CTE were made at autopsy, including the recent findings with Junior Seau's brain.
The test focuses on tau proteins. The ability to detect tau proteins seems important, but let's be clear about what was found here—tau proteins were found in locations similar to those found during autopsies using advanced imaging techniques. These ...

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