Methods and preliminary CTE and neurodegenerative disease data in the Pacific Northwest Brain Donor Network, a military and trauma-based brain bank

Abstract

The Pacific Northwest Brain Donor Network is a brain repository focused on chronic traumatic brain injury (TBI). This cohort is significant for its focus on TBI in military veterans, its use of cases with non-military TBI or no TBI as controls, and the relatively young age of brain donors. In the first 161 donors, the median age was 48 years, and there were 110 donors with TBI and 66 with a history of military service. 39 veterans, 33 non-veterans, and 38 donors with unknown military service had a history of known TBI. Brains underwent ex vivo magnetic resonance imaging followed by standardized neuropathologic evaluation. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy was identified in 45 cases (28%, 19 high stage and 26 low stage), 39 of whom had a history of TBI, and 16 of whom were veterans. Alzheimer’s disease neuropathologic change was identified in 56 cases (35%), and age-related tau astrogliopathy in 61 cases (37.9 %). Smaller numbers of donors had other neurodegenerative diseases including cerebral amyloid angiopathy (13%), Lewy body disease (9.3%), limbic-predominant age-related TDP43 encephalopathy (7.5%), primary age-related tauopathy (5%), and argyrophilic grain disease (3.1%).