Publications by authors named "Daniel H Daneshvar"
Neurodegeneration is a seminal feature of many neurological disorders. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is caused by repetitive head impacts (RHI) and is characterized by sulcal tau pathology. However, quantitative assessments of regional neurodegeneration in CTE have not been described.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: Diagnosing concussions is problematic, in part due to the invisible nature of concussion symptoms, in addition to personal and interpersonal factors that influence symptom reporting. As a result, observable signs of concussion can ensure concussions are identified and appropriately treated. Here, we define a potential novel sign, the spontaneous headshake after a kinematic event (SHAAKE) and evaluate its utility in the diagnosis of concussion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Youth sports coaches play a critical role in proper concussion recognition and management, reinforcing the need for coach concussion education. As of 2021, most states have statutory and policy measures mandating concussion education for coaches. In practice, these mandates have been enacted through state legislatures and their respective youth sport governing bodies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative tauopathy more frequently found in deceased former football players. CTE has heterogeneous clinical presentations with multifactorial causes. Previous literature has shown substance use (alcohol/drug) can contribute to Alzheimer's disease and related tauopathies pathologically and clinically.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Concussions are mild traumatic brain injuries that are often undiagnosed due to difficulties in identifying symptoms. To minimize the negative sequelae associated with undiagnosed concussion, efforts have targeted improving concussion reporting. However, knowing more about concussions does not indicate how likely an athlete is to report their concussion.
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- The study investigates the relationship between perivascular space (PVS) volume in the brain and lifetime exposure to repetitive head impacts (RHI) in individuals at risk for neurodegenerative diseases, particularly focusing on former American football players.
- Conducted across four US study sites from 2016 to 2020, the research involved 224 participants, including 170 former football players and 54 control participants, with analyses exploring how PVS volume correlates with cognitive impairment.
- Results showed that former football players exhibited larger PVS volumes compared to the control group, suggesting that RHI exposure could contribute to changes in brain structure associated with neurodegeneration.
Article Synopsis
- Parkinsonism is often linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) caused by repetitive head injuries, but the exact causes of parkinsonism in CTE patients are not fully understood.
- This study examined brain donors diagnosed with CTE to determine how often parkinsonism occurs and its relationship with brain damage due to past sports-related injuries.
- Results indicated that 24.7% of CTE participants experienced parkinsonism, which was associated with older age, higher dementia rates, and more severe stages of CTE, suggesting a significant connection between the severity of CTE and parkinsonism.
Objective: To describe the incidence of self-reported COVID-19 history in a longitudinal cohort of individuals with complicated mild to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and describe demographic, injury and functional differences based on history of COVID-19 infection.
Design: Individuals with complicated mild to severe TBI aged 16 or older at time of injury who were enrolled in the TBI Model Systems longitudinal cohort study, completed a baseline or follow-up interview between October 1, 2021-March 31, 2023, and provided information about COVID-19 history and timing of COVID-19 infection was collected.
Results: Of the 3,627 individuals included in the analysis, 29.
Objective: To compare clinical outcomes following steroid injections using the anterior and posterior approaches.
Design: Systematic review with meta-analysis.
Setting: Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Center Register of Controlled Trials were searched for randomized control trials (RCTs) and prospective comparative studies.
Article Synopsis
- * A study evaluated brain structures using MRI in 170 former football players and 54 controls, assessing regions associated with CTE pathology, revealing significant reductions in cortical thickness and volume in players compared to controls.
- * Former professional players showed more pronounced brain changes than former college players, specifically in areas like the hippocampus and amygdala, indicating that exposure to head impacts has lasting effects on brain structure.
Repetitive head impacts (RHIs) from football are associated with the neurodegenerative tauopathy chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). It is unclear whether a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is sufficient to precipitate CTE neuropathology. We examined the association between TBI and CTE neuropathology in 580 deceased individuals exposed to RHIs from football.
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- Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative condition linked to repeated head trauma and characterized by tau protein aggregates in the brain, which typically progress from the neocortex to other brain areas as the disease advances.
- A subset of CTE cases known as cortical-sparing CTE (CSCTE) involves less tau buildup in the neocortex but more in the medial temporal lobe and brainstem, affecting around 11% of brain donors diagnosed with CTE.
- Clinically, individuals with CSCTE showed fewer dementia symptoms and less cognitive decline compared to typical high-stage CTE patients, but exhibited earlier onset of behavioral and motor symptoms.
Article Synopsis
- Traumatic encephalopathy syndrome (TES) is linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and is characterized by neurobehavioral dysregulation (NBD), impacting emotional and behavioral regulation in individuals exposed to repetitive head impacts, like former American football players.
- The study involved 104 former players diagnosed with NBD, 76 without the diagnosis, and 55 unexposed individuals, using self-report measures to assess NBD symptoms and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers associated with inflammation.
- Results indicated that levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 were significantly higher in former players, suggesting a connection between these inflammation markers and NBD symptoms linked to past head impacts.
Article Synopsis
- - The study investigates tau pathology in chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) using tau PET imaging from 218 participants, including former professional and college football players, and a control group of individuals without head impact exposure.
- - Elevated tau levels were found in former football players compared to controls, especially in older players over 60 with cumulative head impact exposure, but PET imaging didn't effectively distinguish between individuals with and without traumatic encephalopathy syndrome.
- - The authors emphasize the need for further research to better understand the link between tau pathology and chronic traumatic brain injuries, as current findings only partially clarify these relationships.
Article Synopsis
- This study investigates the impact of repetitive head impacts (RHI) on cognitive decline and dementia by examining the brains of 571 donors exposed to RHI, focusing on 13 different neuropathologies.
- It was found that a significant majority (77.2%) of these donors exhibited moderate to severe neurodegenerative or cerebrovascular issues, with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) being the most common pathology.
- The research highlights that several pathologies, including Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body disease, are interrelated and contribute significantly to cognitive impairment in individuals with a history of RHI.
Article Synopsis
- Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a brain disease that can happen from repeated hits to the head, especially in football players.
- Researchers made a special tool called a position exposure matrix (PEM) to estimate how much head impact different players experience based on their position and level of play.
- The study found that how long players participate in football and the total strength of their head impacts are closely related to CTE, suggesting that stronger and more repeated hits to the head are more likely to cause this brain disease.
American football players and other individuals exposed to repetitive head impacts can exhibit a constellation of later-life cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms. While tau-based diseases such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy can underpin certain symptoms, contributions from non-tau pathologies from repetitive head impacts are increasingly recognized. We examined cross-sectional associations between myelin integrity using immunoassays for myelin-associated glycoprotein and proteolipid protein 1 with risk factors and clinical outcomes in brain donors exposed to repetitive head impacts from American football.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOver the last 17 years, there has been a remarkable increase in scientific research concerning chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Since the publication of NINDS-NIBIB criteria for the neuropathological diagnosis of CTE in 2016, and diagnostic refinements in 2021, hundreds of contact sport athletes and others have been diagnosed at postmortem examination with CTE. CTE has been reported in amateur and professional athletes, including a bull rider, boxers, wrestlers, and American, Canadian, and Australian rules football, rugby union, rugby league, soccer, and ice hockey players.
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