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 2010 are as follows: 1) 63 blast-related TBI patients and 21 controls have been enrolled. MRI scans have been successful with no adverse events. 2) Analyses of initial scans have revealed abnormalities on DTI indicative of traumatic axonal injury in 20/63 injured subjects that were not detectible on conventional MRI or CT. 3) Abnormalities were detected in regions of the brain predicted to be vulnerable to blast, but not typically injured in civilian TBI. 4) At follow-up, post-traumatic stress disorder was common, and its severity could be partially predicted by specific DTI abnormalities. This raises the possibility that injury to specific brain regions may impair emotional processing.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA549854
Entities
People
- David L. Brody
Organizations
- Washington University in St. Louis