First Soccer Player Diagnosed with CTE Brings Up Sport's Risks

Feb. 27, 2014 — -- The first soccer player to be diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) has drawn attention to the possibility that a sport formerly thought of as “safer” than football or hockey can still result degenerative effects on the neurological system.

Patrick Grange died at age 29 in 2012 from a degenerative motor-neuron disease likely related to his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, which is commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

After his death, Grange’s brain was found to have signs of the degenerative neurological disorder called CTE.

Grange, who played soccer on the collegiate level at Illinois-Chicago and New Mexico before spending time at the Premier Development League in Chicago, is the first soccer player confirmed to have had CTE, according to a New York Times report.

The disease can only be diagnosed after a patient's death when their brain is examined for certain protein patterns.

While CTE has been known to affect boxers since the 1920s, in recent years the disease has been diagnosed in players from a wide range of sports -- primarily professional football and hockey. Last year, the first baseball player was diagnosed.

Baseball Player Had CTE Say Parents

Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist at the VA Boston Healthcare System and the Boston University School of Medicine, worked to identify CTE in Grange’s brain at the CTE Center at Boston University. She said even subconcussive trauma, where no symptoms are experienced, can cause degradation of the brain.

“You can have limbs hitting the head and the head hitting the turf,” said McKee. “In addition, heading the balls and [the] velocity of the ball, there’s a substantial whiplash component. It’s an acceleration and deceleration” that can cause damage.

While soccer doesn't usually feature the big tackles and hits that are a hallmark of American football or hockey, the players often head the ball, sometimes thousands of times a year between games and practice. Researchers are now trying to understand what these repetitive actions can have on the brain.

Concussion Dangers on the Slopes

Grange enjoyed heading the ball, according to the New York Times. His parents also told the Times that he showed signs of CTE very early and had trouble even balancing a checkbook, and impulsively left a job to try out for a soccer team.

Patients with CTE display symptoms "such as impulsivity, forgetfulness, depression, [and] sometimes suicidal ideation," according to Dr. Russell Lonser, chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at Ohio State University.

Dr. Michael Lipton, the associate director of the Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University, has been studying the effects of heading the ball on soccer players for years.

“The lion's share of heading seems to come from practice. They head the ball again and again and again,” Lipton told ABC News. “From speaking to players, they will tell you they can become symptomatic during those drills ...[with] concussion symptoms related to competitive heading.”

Lipton said he’s talked to players who have experienced nausea, confusion and hearing loss during a drill.

“The thing that is unique about soccer is people are doing this again and again and again,” Lipton said of players practicing heading.

A published study of amateur adult soccer players found the more players headed the ball over a year, the likelier they were to exhibit signs of brain damage and inflammation on an MRI and have less cognitive function, Lipton said.