Icahn School of Medicine

September 17, 2014

ME/CFS subset or co-morbidity? Neuroimaging technique identifies chronic traumatic encephalopathy in living brain

Positron emission tomography (PET) scanner unit with patient and technician operator, stock image. Credit: Wellcome Photo Library

Detection while patient is still alive improves accuracy of diagnosis and enables estimation of prevalence and risk

An experimental positron emission tomography (PET) tracer is effective in diagnosing concussion-related brain disease while a person is still alive, according to a case study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and at Molecular Neuroimaging (MNI) LLC in New Haven, and published September 16 in the journal Translational Psychiatry.

Specifically, the study results suggest that an experimental radiolabeled compound called [18 F]-T807, which is designed to latch onto a protein called tau that accumulates in the brain with repetitive blows to the head, can be registered on a PET scanner to effectively diagnose chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The study results also argue the process can differentiate it from other forms of dementia while the sufferer is still alive. Until now, CTE diagnosis has only been possible by evaluating post-mortem brain tissue.

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