Cerebral Microstructural Changes Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

This study examine the possible microstructural changes in the middle brain after mTBI using diffusion MRI

There is a need for clinical and biological markers at 2-3 month to screen people in risk of getting chronic post-concussion symptoms (PCS) but also biomarkers in the brain to find out if this group with prolonged symptoms has measurable changes in the brain which could explain the persisting symptoms. Several biomarkers and brain areas have been investigated as possible sites of injury after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). The nature of the diffuse PCS makes corpus callosum (CC), thalamus (THA) and hippocampus (HIP) interesting because of their central position and connection to widespread motor, sensory and cognitive processes and other brain areas. In most prior studies conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has failed to detect pathology especially in the later phase. Diffusional Kurtosis Imaging (DKI) and Diffusional Tensor Imaging (DTI) are more sensitive to microstructural changes and might serve as biomarkers in the middle brain after mTBI. It is hypothesized that there will be a difference in the microstructure of the thalamus, corpus callosum and hippo campus as measured with DKI between two groups of mTBI subjects with and without PCS. Secondary it is hypothesized that DKI are more sensitive than DTI in the measure of microstructural changes.