Advanced MRI in Blast-Related TBI
Abstract
The purpose of the research effort is to test two advanced MRI methods, DTI and resting-state fMRI, in active-duty military blast-related TBI patients acutely after injury and correlate findings with TBI-related clinical outcomes 6-12 months later. These methods may add clinically useful predictive information following traumatic brain injury that could be of assistance in standardizing diagnostic criteria for TBI, making return-to-duty triage decisions, guiding post-injury rehabilitation, and developing novel therapeutics. The overarching hypothesis guiding this project is that traumatic axonal injury is a principal cause of impaired brain function following blast-related TBI. The major findings as of 1 Aug 2009 are as follows: 1) All required human studies/IRB/HRPO approvals have been obtained. 2) A total of 63 subjects have been enrolled at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, including 43 blast-related TBI patients and 20 controls. All acute MRI scans have been performed successfully with no adverse events. 3) Initial analyses of initial scans have revealed abnormalities on DTI indicative of traumatic axonal injury in 20/43 injured subjects that were not detectible on conventional MRI or CT. 4) To date, 4 clinical outcome evaluations and repeat scans have been performed at Washington University with no adverse events.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA509239
Entities
People
- Christine L. Macdonald
- David L. Brody
Organizations
- Washington University in St. Louis