Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)

This program asks what years of head impacts in sparring and competition do to the brain, what can be measured while a fighter is still competing, and what the evidence can and cannot tell an individual fighter.

Two terms are kept apart throughout. In the pathology studies in the library, CTE was identified by examining brain tissue after death. Traumatic encephalopathy syndrome (TES) is a set of research criteria proposed for the clinical presentation of suspected CTE in a living person.

Research questions

• Which measures taken during a career, such as imaging, cognitive testing and blood markers, track with later brain health?
• How do sparring load, number of bouts, weight class and weight cutting relate to changes in the brain?
• What do fighters want to know about their own results, and how should findings be returned to them?
• What do retired fighters and their families need when problems appear?

Workplan

1. A defined review of the longitudinal evidence in professional fighters and of the pathology studies, with reproducible searches, extraction, design-specific appraisal and clear outcome definitions.
2. Authors and reviewers assigned according to the work each person actually performs.
3. Publication of the completed review under the Fight Medicine Research Institute’s affiliation, with its methods and review record.

The project register records each study once it is authorized. It holds no authorized human-participant study in this area.

Evidence gathered

The research library holds 12 sources on this area. Several of the imaging studies in the library analyse the same cohort, the Professional Fighters Brain Health Study. They are separate analyses of one group of fighters, not independent samples.

Evidence appraisal: Brain measures after fighters stop competing.