Doctors Currently Can’t Diagnose CTE In Living Patients, But Scientists Might Have Just Taken First Step
Researchers from Boston University’s School of Medicine have identified an inflammatory protein circulating in spinal fluid that may reflect the presence of CTE in patients’ brains. In other public health news: concussions in teens, blood donors, hearing aids, precision medicine and more.
Los Angeles Times:
Scientists May Have Found A Way To Diagnose CTE In Football Players While They're Still Alive
It is a humbling but very motivating fact that a person currently has to die before doctors can make a diagnosis of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease that afflicts many professional football players and other athletes who have sustained repeated blows to the head. After all, if it were possible to diagnose CTE in the living, those athletes and the physicians who care for them could probably do something useful with that knowledge. (Healy, 9/26)
Boston Globe:
BU Might Be Closer Toward Diagnosing CTE During Life
Boston University researchers have moved closer to identifying a way to diagnose chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in the living — a step forward in learning about the incurable brain disease, which has afflicted countless athletes and members of the military. (Hohler, 9/26)
NPR:
Concussion Rate Among Teens May Be As High As 20 Percent
Concussions have gotten a lot of attention in recent years, especially as professional football players' brains have shown signs of degenerative brain disease linked with repeated blows to the head. Now, a new analysis confirms what many doctors fear — that concussions start showing up at a high rate in teens who are active in contact sports. (Jochem, 9/26)
Kaiser Health News:
As Loyal Blood Donors Age, Industry Is Out For Young Blood
When Corinne Standefer retires as a volunteer from the Lane Bloodworks in Eugene, Ore., this month, she will have donated 37 years of her life — and almost 19 gallons of blood. The 89-year-old gave her first pint decades ago to help a friend who had cancer. “When they called me and said ‘Could you donate again?’ I just started coming in,” she recalled. (Aleccia, 9/27)
The Baltimore Sun:
Lower Cost Hearing Aids Sold Over-The-Counter Will Reach More People, Prevent Other Medical Problems
Federal legislation passed earlier this year aims to make hearing aids more affordable for people like Witt, who are elderly and have fixed incomes, by allowing some styles of the devices to be sold over-the-counter at drug stores and other retailers. The new law allows hearing aids for people with mild to moderate hearing loss to be sold at retailers and not through an audiologist — much like low-prescription “reader” eyeglasses are sold. (McDaniels, 9/26)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Huge Genetic Study To Search For Custom Treatments
In a quest to end cookie-cutter health care, researchers are getting ready to recruit more than 1 million people for an unprecedented study to learn how our genes, environments and lifestyles interact — and to finally develop custom ways to prevent and treat disease. (Neergaard, 9/26)
Bloomberg:
Apple, Fitbit To Join FDA Program To Speed Health Tech
A federal agency that regulates apples wants to make regulations on Apple Inc. a little easier. The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees new drugs, medical devices and much of the U.S. food supply, said Tuesday that it had selected nine major tech companies for a pilot program that may let them avoid some regulations that have tied up developers working on health software and products. (Edney, 9/26)
