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Advanced Neuroimaging of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

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Concussions in Athletics

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Abstract

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) constitutes the majority of brain trauma cases. Despite its prevalence, detection in clinical imaging remains a challenge, as does the ability to predict duration and extent of disability. Advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods combined with improved data analytic techniques have already demonstrated the potential to meet this challenge. This chapter reviews the recent progress in detection and outcome prediction in mTBI using the latest MRI techniques, including diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI and SWIM), among others. Several recent published reports have found that DTI is sensitive to alterations in white matter ultrastructure not revealed by conventional MRI. More specifically, DTI reveals alterations in the ultrastructure of white matter axons caused by traumatic shear and stretch, which have been shown to correlate with clinical severity indicators and neuropsychological deficits. By virtue of its excellent sensitivity to iron and deoxygenated hemoglobin, SWI/SWIM has demonstrated exquisite detection of micro-hemorrhages and further quantification of hemorrhage and blood oxygenation. Used together, these advanced imaging techniques have the potential to serve as a set of surrogate biomarkers which can be used in determining prognosis and will likely have a major role in animal and human therapeutic trials, both to improve selection criteria of experimental subjects and to provide a number of new biomarkers for use in addition to conventional clinical and behavioral measures.

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Acknowledgement 

Supported by grants from the Department of Defense (PI: EM Haacke) and International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (PI: Zhifeng Kou).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology, Wayne State University, 818 West Hancock Street, Detroit, MI, 48201, USA

    Zhifeng Kou Ph.D.

  2. Department of Radiology, Wayne State University, 3990 John R Street, Detroit, MI, 48201, USA

    E. Mark Haacke Ph.D.

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  1. Zhifeng Kou Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Zhifeng Kou Ph.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Professor, Director of Center for Sports Concussion Research and Services, Penn State - Hershey Medical College, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Semyon M. Slobounov

  2. Kalenak Professor in Orthopaedics, Director of Athletic Medicine, Penn State - Hershey Medical College, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Wayne J. Sebastianelli

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Kou, Z., Haacke, E.M. (2014). Advanced Neuroimaging of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. In: Slobounov, S., Sebastianelli, W. (eds) Concussions in Athletics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0295-8_12

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