The lack of neurobehavioral sequelae following the blast exposure with a head restraint may have implications for the design of helmets that help to keep the head stationary, she said.
The next goal is to identify CTE in living humans, Dr. McKee said. Her group is now analyzing cerebrospinal fluid for tau protein and conducting neuroimaging in a cohort of recent veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
Dr. Perl and his colleagues at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences have recently established the first brain tissue repository that is specifically designed to support research on the effects of traumatic brain injury suffered by military service members. It is supported by a multiyear grant from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command.
The study was supported by various grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, Cure Alzheimer’s Fund, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, the Migraine Research Foundation, the March of Dimes Foundation, and the National Football League. One author is a science advisory board member of Immunotrex Biologics, but other authors reported having no competing interests.