FOXNEWS- Doctors were successfully able to diagnose a living person with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a first for the field of medical research, according to a recently published article.
The findings, released in the medical journal Neurosurgery on Nov. 10, said an autopsy on the brain of a retired NFL player confirmed the results of scans taken more than four years before the subject died. CTE is "a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in people with a history of repetitive brain trauma," according to the Research CTE Center at Boston University.
It's been found to especially affect athletes and members of the military.
The family of former Minnesota Vikings linebacker Fred McNeill confirmed to the Chicago Tribune that McNeill was the subject of the study. McNeill was 63 years old when he died in 2015 and had experienced significant loss of motor skills and changes to his personality since his retirement from the NFL, the research paper said.
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