Advanced MRI May Reveal Head
Injuries in More Retired NFL Players
Than Previously Thought
By Gillian Mohney and Julie Barzilay
Apr 11, 2016
Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images
A detail shot of an NFL football.
An advanced MRI screening found brain damage in more retired NFL players than did normal
MRI scans, according to a presentation today.
For the study, 40 retired NFL players went through advanced neuro-imaging with a special type
of MRI called a diffusion tensor MRI (DTI), which looks for damage in the neural pathways of
the brain rather than examining just the structure of the brain itself. Players also underwent
neuro-psychological testing to measure their attention and concentration, researchers said.
The findings from the study were presented today at the annual meeting for the American
Academy of Neurology, but they have not yet been published, and ABC News was provided
only with an abstract rather than a full study. The lead author of the study, Dr. Francis Conidi, is
the Director of the Florida Center for Headache and Sport Neurology.
The retired players ranged between 27 to 56 years old, and played for an average of seven years.
On average, the players had 8.1 concussions during their careers and 12 players reported multiple
sub-concussive hits, which were not diagnosed as full concussions.
By examining how players' brains appeared under the specialized MRI, the researchers found
evidence that more of them had suffered severe head injuries than previously believed. While the
conventional MRI detected evidence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in just 30 percent of the
players, the advanced MRI showed evidence of TBI in approximately 42 percent of players.
The study also showed that the longer a player’s career, the higher the likelihood that the DTI
revealed brain damage.
“This technology has been around for quite some time, about fifteen years,” said Lenox Hill
Hospital neurologist Dr. Gayatri Devi of the DTI, noting that it looks at "connections between
neurons, and is more precise in terms of looking for disruptions in those connections.”
While it is notable that this DTI method detected injuries in more retired players, Devi advised
approaching these findings with caution.
For one thing, although this is actually one of the largest studies ever conducted on retired NFL
players, more brains will need to be scanned before broader conclusions can be reached, said
Conidi, the first author of the study.
In addition, the researchers only detected TBIs rather than what is known as chronic traumatic
encephalopathy (CTE) in the study participants. TBIs are indications of one-time brain injuries,
while CTE represents a brain injury that continues to cause brain cell death long after the initial
injury. CTE can only be diagnosed after someone has died, so there is no way these players
could be assessed for it - but it is still important to note that DTIs cannot capture all the
information about ongoing brain damage.
Regardless, the study serves as another red flag with regards to the dangers of head trauma, Devi
said.
“This study has some value in terms of alerting us to the idea that players who may have normal
MRIs, and even perhaps those who don’t have clear concussions ... may be at risk of some kind
of brain injury,” Devi said.
And while technologies to detect brain injuries continue to improve, the best offense is a good
defense -- protecting the heads of football players should be a top priority, Devi emphasized.
“We need better player protection to prevent the head injuries in the first place,” she said.