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BOSTON (WCVB) — Former NFL and Boston College quarterback Matt Hasselbeck is hoping to be a game-changer again only this time, in the field of medicine.
He’s undergoing testing in Boston to help doctors get closer to being able to diagnose chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in living patients.
“I feel a little bit like a guinea pig today, but that’s quite alright,” Hasselbeck said.
A major step forward on the research side is DIAGNOSE CTE, a multi-state research project that started in 2015 and is now in its second phase.
The project is led by Dr. Michael Alosco, the co-director of clinical research at the Boston University CTE Center.
“Once we can detect this disease early, we can then start to intervene,” Alosco said. “We learned a lot about what a brain might look like on an MRI scan in the first version. As we are entering the second version, one of the things we are really interested in is how can we now look at things like the blood, or other types of imaging techniques to get even more accurate in our detection and diagnoses, but also more accessible.”
Across the five sites involved in the study, hundreds of people at risk for CTE are evaluated. Some of these people have symptoms, while others are asymptomatic.
Hasselbeck has been an ambassador for the research.
“In my case, I played quarterback, so the guys in front of me were probably doing more hitting, protecting me in a sense,” he said. “I think in a way, I feel like this is a way to give back to them.”
For two days, Hasselbeck went through comprehensive evaluation at the BU CTE Center.
The evaluation included multiple brain scans, blood tests, and psychological testing.
“Eventually in the not so distant future, have this algorithm that is going to combine all of these different data points to get us to a place where we can be confident for some people about CTE diagnosis,” Alosco said.
The research group hopes to have more partnerships, sponsors, and volunteers involved in the future.
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