TY - JOUR T1 - Sports medicine highlights from other journals JF - British Journal of Sports Medicine JO - Br J Sports Med SP - 980 LP - 980 DO - 10.1136/bjsports-2017-098550 VL - 53 IS - 15 AU - Angela Gisselman AU - Ronan Kearney AU - Christina Le AU - Brady Desmond Green Y1 - 2019/08/01 UR - http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/53/15/980.abstract N2 - JAMA 2017; 318:360-370You may have already seen the results of this paper through a media outlet. Let’s take a closer look. This study represents the largest case series of deceased American football players who donated their brains for research. At first glance the results appear shocking but further consideration is needed.Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) was diagnosed in 177 of 202 (87%) deceased players, including a subgroup of NFL players in which CTE was identified in 99% of cases. Suicide was the most common cause of death in mild CTE, and dementia or parkinsonian-related disease in severe CTE.The majority of players in this study were at the elite level, so caution must be taken when generalising results to other football players. The authors also acknowledged that the cohort was a ‘conveniently’ selected sample and had an ascertainment bias due to athletes’ participation in the brain donation programme. Furthermore, … ER -