CTE Could Be Identified in Living Patients Using PET Scans

Positron emission tomography (PET) could successfully identify chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in living individuals, according to the results of a recent study.

Currently, only presumptive diagnosis of CTE can be made in living individuals. In a recent study, researchers presented a method that could diagnose CTE, based on brain autopsy confirmation of [F-18]FDDNP-PET findings from an American football player with CTE.
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Imaging was performed 52 months before the individual’s death, and relative distribution volume parametric images and binding values were determined for cortical and subcortical regions of interest.

Following his death, the individual’s brain was examined. Correlation between neuropathology and [F-18]FDDNP-PET binding patterns was performed using Spearman rank-order correlation. Changes to mood, behavior, motor skills and cognition were consistent with chronic traumatic myeloencephalopathy with a 22-year lifetime risk exposure to American football.

[F-18]FDDNP-PET binding levels correlated with brain tau deposition, with highest relative distribution volumes in the parasagittal and paraventricular regions of the brain and the brain stem.

“Future studies are warranted to determine whether differential and selective [F-18]FDDNP-PET may be useful in establishing a diagnosis of CTE in at-risk patients,” the researchers concluded.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Omalu B, Small GW, Bailes J, et al. Postmortem autopsy-confirmation of antemortem [F-18]FDDNP-PET scans in a football player with chronic traumatic encephalopathy [published online November 10, 2017]. Neurosurgery. https://doi.org/10.1093/neuros/nyx536.