Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a form of encephalopathy, which is a progressive degenerative disease. It occurs in individuals with a history of multiple concussions and other forms of head injury. The disease was previously called dementia pugilistica (DP), as it was originally found in people with a history of boxing. CTE has been most commonly found in professional athletes who participate in American football, ice hockey, professional wrestling, or other contact sports and have experienced repetitive head trauma. As found more generally in traumatic brain injury, part of the brain pathology found in CTE includes abnormally aggregated proteins, primarily tau, but sometimes also TDP-43, and amyloid β-protein (Aβ).