Brain tissue from deceased military veterans exposed to explosions shows signs of the same neurodegenerative brain disorder that strikes football players who have sustained multiple concussions

By Larry Greenemeier ?| May 16, 2012

CONCUSSIVE FORCE: Soldiers are injured by more than just the initial shock wave of very high air pressure following a blast. An IED’s secondary “blast wind,” a huge volume of displaced air flooding at high pressure back into the vacuum, can also damage the brain and lead to long-term consequences such as CTE. Image: Courtesy of Craig Lathrop, via iStockphoto.com

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The stress and suffering of combat are known to leave a lasting impact on military veterans, in some cases triggering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Researchers have now found an even more serious and debilitating mental condition, known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), in veterans, particularly those injured by the concussive force of bomb blasts.

Whereas PTSD is a mental illness, marked by unwelcome flashbacks and anguish, CTE is a progressive neurodegenerative brain disorder characterized by abnormal protein deposits that eventually kill brain cells and thus cause cognitive declines, including loss of memory and the ability to learn, as well as depression. The number of veterans at risk is large: traumatic brain injury caused by explosive blasts is thought to afflict about 20 percent of the 2.3 million servicemen and women deployed in combat since 2001, according to a team of researchers from Boston University, New York Medical College and the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System.

These researchers say they have demonstrated that exposure to a single blast equivalent to that generated by a typical improvised explosive device (IED) can result in CTE and long-term brain impairments that accompany the disease. The research, published online Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine, also indicates that soldiers are injured by more than just the initial shock wave of very high air pressure following a blast. An IED’s secondary “blast wind,” a huge volume of displaced air flooding at high pressure back into the vacuum, can also damage the brain and lead to long-term consequences such as CTE. The blast wind created by an IED can reach a velocity of more than 530 kilometers per hour. Winds from a category 5 hurricane (the most severe), by comparison, reach about 250 kilometers per hour.

For their study, the researchers analyzed postmortem brain tissue from four military service members who were known to have been injured by a blast or had a concussive injury. The scientists compared that tissue with brain tissue samples from three young amateur American football players and a professional wrestler, all of whom had a history of repetitive concussive injury, and with four samples from comparably aged control subjects with no history of blast exposure, concussive injury or neurological disease. The signs of CTE (which can only be diagnosed postmortem) in the brains of blast-exposed military veterans were indistinguishable from those found in the deceased athletes, according to the researchers, led by Lee Goldstein, an associate professor at Boston University School of Medicine (B.U.S.M.) and Boston University College of Engineering, and Ann McKee, a B.U.S.M. professor and director of the Neuropathology Service for the VA New England Healthcare System.

Growing awareness of CTE has come primarily from its impact on the lives of former professional football players diagnosed with the condition. Several of these former players?including Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson, Philadelphia Eagles safety Andre Waters and Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman Terry Long?ended up taking their own lives. Before shooting himself in the chest in February 2011, the 50-year-old Duerson sent a text message to his family specifying that he wanted his brain to be used for research at B.U.S.M. A few months later McKee and her colleagues at B.U. confirmed that Duerson suffered from CTE, possibly caused by concussions and other repetitive head trauma sustained on the gridiron.

More recently the Brain Injury Research Institute (BIRI), which studies the impact of concussions, asked the family of the late National Football League star linebacker Junior Seau to donate his brain so it, too, could be studied for signs of CTE. BIRI co-founder Bennet Omalu, the forensic pathologist who discovered physical evidence tying concussions to CTE, assisted in the autopsy of Seau’s brain, although the results will not be known for weeks. Seau committed suicide earlier this month by shooting himself in the chest.

When studying a brain for signs of CTE, researchers look for abnormal deposits of the proteins tau and TDP-43. The buildup of tau, in particular, within the brain cells is indicative of CTE. In a February 2012 Scientific American article, McKee noted that the parts of the brain afflicted with abnormal tau correlate with the psychological problems of a person suffering from CTE. The abnormal tau is found in the frontal cortex, which is responsible for impulse control, judgment and the ability to multitask. She also found tau in areas of the brain associated with depression as well as memory formation and retention.

Protecting soldiers and athletes from concussions presents a huge challenge because these injuries are not necessarily the result of repeated blows to the head. A concussion can occur whenever there is a sudden acceleration or deceleration of the head. This means helmets?whether for combat or football?actually provide little protection from concussions.

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According to UFC officials, it’s playing off the natural rivalry between Aussies and Brits. To the press release:

“Australia and the UK have a fierce, long-standing rivalry, and where better to settle the score than in the UFC’s Octagon,” said Marshall Zelaznik, UFC’s Managing Director of International Development. “The popularity of MMA has exploded in Australia and the UK, with gyms opening all over the respective countries. There is an athlete in one of those gyms who hasn’t had the chance to show the world what he can do ? The Ultimate Fighter is going give to him that opportunity. We’re going to discover the UFC’s future stars, you can bet on it.”

TUF, American style has already produced plenty of British and Australian UFC veterans. Michael Bisping won season three and then went on to coach a host of Brits on season nine. Ausses George Sotiropoulos and Kyle Noke also made their name on TUF.

There is no word on coaches yet, but American fans can look forward to plenty of subtitles on English-speakers. Most of Team UK from season nine had that honor. By sheer history alone, my money is on Australia. Remember, they are descended from the British convicts of yore.

–

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If the people who hired you to design a website have been dodgy and unreliable about payment, here’s a little stunt that will shock their wallets and open their checkbooks: scrap the entire site and kindly demand payment on the website’s front page. Your payment should come soon after. More »

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The private spaceflight company SpaceX successfully test fired the rocket that will launch the first-ever commercial space capsule to the International Space Station today (April 30), after a slight delay that was caused by an apparent computer glitch.

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SpaceX officials conducted the so-called “static fire test” of the firm’s?Falcon 9 rocket?today on a second try at 4:15 p.m. EDT (2015 GMT) at Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Falcon 9 rocket is poised on the launch pad, ready to blast off toward the space station on May 7. SpaceX aired the engine test live via the company’s website.

A first attempt, which aimed to fire the rocket’s engines at around 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), hit a snag with 47 second remaining in the mock countdown. SpaceX officials traced the problem to a flight computer, but the issue was resolved after a brief delay.

During today’s static fire test, the nine Merlin engines that power the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage were ignited for about two seconds, as the booster remained attached to the launch pad.

“So far things look good,” SpaceX spokesperson Kirstin Grantham said in a statement. “Engines fired for 2 seconds, as scheduled. Engineers will now review data as we continue preparations for the upcoming launch.”

SpaceX is expected to conduct a thorough review of all the data as engineers make final preparations for the upcoming launch, which is currently targeted for May 7.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is a two-stage booster that stands about 180 feet tall (55 meters) and is topped with the company’s unmanned?Dragon space capsule. It is the capsule that will be making the trip to the International Space Station, where a crew of astronauts is waiting to pluck the gumdrop-shaped capsule from space using a robotic arm. The Dragon vehicle will be attached to the orbiting complex with the robotic arm.

The Hawthorne, Calif.-based?SpaceX?(short for Space Exploration Technologies, Corp.) has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to conduct 12 cargo missions to the space station with its Dragon spacecraft. ?

“This will be the first attempt by a commercial company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station, a feat previously performed by only a few governments. Success is not guaranteed,” SpaceX officials said. “If any aspect of the mission is not successful, SpaceX will learn from the experience and try again.”

SpaceX is one of two private companies with contracts to provide unmanned space cargo flights to the space station for NASA. The Virginia-based company Orbital Technologies, Corp., has a $1.9 billion contract to provide eight cargo delivery missions using its own Cygnus spacecraft and Antares rocket. The first test of that spacecraft and rocket is expected to occur later this year.

SpaceX officials said the?May 7 launch of Dragon?toward the space station will also be webcast live via the company’s website.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter?@Spacedotcom?and on?Facebook.

Copyright 2012?SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget inquiry is coming to us from Chris, who simply has too much money to blow on a super-laptop. If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“I sold my business and I want to replace my laptop [HP Pavilion G6] with a completely unreasonably expensive top of the line machine. I want it to do everything I do (gaming, coding, web design) all at the same time. Apart from the fact I need two hard drive bays, I’m completely open-minded, so what should I be buying? Thank you!”

Quell your gnashing teeth, members of the 99 percent, he’s done well for himself and now he needs our help. We were able to trick out an Alienware M18x to full capacity for $6,700 — with an over-clocked 4GHz Intel Core i7 CPU, 32GB of RAM, two 2GB NVIDIA GTX 675M GPUs in SLI mode and 1.2TB of SSD RAID storage. That’s the benchmark, folks: who out there can find something more powerful?

Ask Engadget: best ‘money is no object’ laptop? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Apr 2012 23:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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