Chapter 16 - Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major public health burden sustained by millions of people annually. The effects of TBI can be characterized based on clinical severity or underlying pathology, with both factors influencing expected recovery. Acute factors involved in the pathophysiology of TBI have been relatively well explored, but chronic effects require further investigation. Of specific interest is the relationship between TBI and neurodegenerative disease, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Originally found in boxers, CTE has been diagnosed in a wide variety of individuals who had been exposed to head trauma. Although the focal perivascular clusters of hyperphosphorylated tau diagnostic of CTE may be found as early as the second decade, the first clinical signs of CTE are not typically observed until one's thirties or forties. Animal models of CTE are under development, as well as in vivo diagnostic tools utilizing the clinical assessment and analysis of biomarkers.