Doc’s CTE breakthrough

THE BOSTON UNIVERSITY scientists at the forefront of research of the crippling brain disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), are hopeful that within five to 10 years, they will be able to diagnose the disease in those who are alive.

But noted pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu may have already reached that critical medical milestone. According to a study Omalu co-authored and which was published in the journal Neurosurgery, Omalu and other researchers were able to determine the presence of tau protein — which destroys brain cells and is a key indicator of the presence of CTE — in a patient’s brain while the patient was alive. A subsequent autopsy of the patient confirmed he suffered from CTE, which currently can only be diagnosed postmortem.

CTE has been linked to football and the repetitive head and brain trauma sustained by players competing in the violent sport, and the late NFL players Frank Gifford, Ken Stabler, Junior Seau, Dave Duerson and Andre Waters are just a few of the names of ex-players diagnosed with CTE.

Omalu confirmed to CNN that the late Vikings linebacker Fred McNeill was the patient who was diagnosed with CTE while still alive.

According to a CNN report, Omalu used a diagnostic tool — a PET scan — to study the brain of McNeill while he was living, and when he was demonstrating cognitive impairment. McNeill died in November 2015 at age 63 from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a degenerative muscle condition also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

McNeill’s last years of his life, however, were filled with bouts of depression, volatile mood swings and dementia — all common symptoms of CTE — according to McNeill’s widow, Tia, and the couple’s two grown sons, Fred Jr. and Gavin.

“There was maybe two moments where he lost it, and punched holes in the walls. And it was like, ‘Wow.’ There were times (McNeill) would talk about ending it,” Fred McNeill Jr. told CNN. “We were like, ‘This is not our dad.’”

Gavin McNeill, when reached by the Daily News Thursday, declined to be interviewed, saying only that the family knew about the CTE diagnosis two years ago, and “now it’s official.”

The dramatic behavioral changes in McNeill that his family described in the CNN interview mirror cases of other deceased former NFL players who have been diagnosed with CTE. Duerson transitioned into a successful businessman after his NFL playing days, but he killed himself in 2011 with a self-inflicted gunshot to the chest. Duerson was 50.

And former Jets and Giants kicker Cary Blanchard died last year of a heart attack at age 47, but his ex-wife Mindi told The News recently that in the last three years of his life, Cary was a completely different person — a loving family man who transformed into someone prone to violent mood swings, suicidal thoughts and a husband and father who threatened to harm his own family. Cary had three children with Mindi. The McNeill sons described similar behavior by their father.

“It looked like financial issues at first, it looked like marital issues, his personal issues, it was depression and all these things that came with it,” Gavin McNeill said in the CNN report.

Fred McNeill lost numerous jobs after his playing days, the CNN report said, and he eventually filed for bankruptcy.

“Fred did everything — played ball, went to law school, prepared for life after football, we had the kids. It was a good life,” Tia McNeill told CNN. “And then it changed.”

If doctors and scientists are able to diagnose CTE in the living, it will go a long way toward developing effective treatment, and perhaps even slow the progression of the disease.