Abstract

Dementia Pugilistica (DP) is the initial term used to characterize a progressive cognitive deterioration, as result of multiple concussions, occurring in boxers, who have ended their professional carrier. As a similar deterioration is also observed in American football players, and other contact sport athletes, and in military veterans a more general term is used called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). It is not known whether the clinical and neuropathological characteristics are completely the same in CTE of athletes and military veterans compared to DP, described in boxers.

Different clinical stages of these diseases have been proposed starting with mild psychiatric symptoms and progressing to a severe dementia status and eventual associated motor symptoms.

As DP and CTE are classified as neurodegenerative diseases mainly characterized by hyperphosphorylated tau pathology, also a grading system of the neuropathological lesions has been introduced, starting with discrete foci in the frontal cerebral cortex and with a progressive generalization during the further evolution. Also, other neurodegenerative diseases can be found associated to DP and CTE.

Currently, some of the greatest challenges are that DP and CTE cannot be diagnosed with certainty during life and that the incidence and the prevalence of these disorders remain uncertain. Also, the post-mortem lesions can sometimes not be distinguished from those in the Alzheimer’s disease.

Keywords: Dementia Pugilistica; Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy; Tau Pathology; Alzheimer’s Disease; Lewy Body Disease; Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration; Motor Neuron Disease

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