Table 4.

Neuropathological features of the six footballers included in this study

Case	Criteria-confirmed CTE [30]	Brain weight (g)	Septal abnormalities	Nigral cell loss	Hippocampal sclerosis	Braak NFT Stage	Thal Phase	‘ABC’ Score for AD (level)	CAA	TDP-43	Vascular pathology	Other pathological diagnosis
1	Yes	1250	CSP, F	Severe	–	IV	4	A3B2C2 (intermediate)	Moderate	Diffuse (Type A, Stage 6)	–	CBD
2	Yes	1150	F	–	Yes	IV	3	A2B2C2 (Intermediate)	–	Limbic (Type A, Stage 3)	–	–
3	No	1250	F	Mild	–	IV	4	A3B2C3 (intermediate)	Severe	Limbic (Type A, Stage 3)	Mild hyaline arteriosclerosis	–
4	No	1150	F	Severe	–	V	5	A3B3C3 (high)	Moderate	Diffuse (Type A, Stage 6)	–	LBDa
5	Yes	1120	F	Mild	Yes	IV	3	A2B2C2 (intermediate)	Moderate	Diffuse (Type A, Stage 6)	–	–
6	Yes	1500	F	Mild	–	IV	5	A3B2C2 (intermediate)	Moderate	Diffuse (Type A, Stage 6)	Small focal ischaemic infarct in cingulate white matter, mild SVD in striatum	–

– absent, ABC score ABC score for AD neuropathologic change (level) [34]—‘intermediate’ and ‘high’ are considered sufficient explanation for dementia, AD Alzheimer’s disease, Braak NFT stage Braak and Braak Neurofibrillary Tangle Stage (I–VI) [6], CSP cavum septi pellucidi, CAA cerebral amyloid angiopathy, CBD corticobasal degeneration, CTE chronic traumatic encephalopathy, CTE criteria preliminary NINDS criteria for the pathological diagnosis of CTE [30], F fenestration of septum, LBD Lewy body disease, SVD: Small vessel disease, TDP-43 Transactive response DNA-binding protein, 43 kDa pathology in hippocampus: diffuse or limbic, recommended by the classification system of Mackenzie et al. for FDLD-TDP [27] and the staging scheme proposed by Josephs et al. for TDP-43 in AD [18], Thal Phase [41] thal Beta-amyloid Phase

^a LBD Braak stage 6 [7] and McKeith criteria for ‘diffuse neocortical’ category [33]