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Review of the Evidence Supporting the Medical and Legal Use of NeuroQuant® in Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury

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Abstract

Decades of research have shown that the brain atrophies after traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, multiple practical issues made it difficult to detect brain atrophy in individual patients with mild to moderate TBI. This situation improved by 2007 with the FDA approval of NeuroQuant®, a commercially available, computer-automated software program for measuring MRI brain volume in human subjects. Several peer-reviewed scientific studies have supported the reliability and validity of NeuroQuant®. This review addresses whether NeuroQuant® meets the Daubert standard for admissibility in court cases involving persons with TBI. The review finds that NeuroQuant® is an objective, reliable, and practical means of measuring brain volume and therefore can be an important tool for measuring the effects of TBI on brain volume in clinical or medicolegal settings.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Matthew W. Broughton, Esq., for his helpful comments on this article.

Conflict of Interest

The authors report no financial conflicts of interest or financial relationships with respect to any of the companies or products discussed in this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Virginia Institute of Neuropsychiatry, 364 Browns Hill Court, Midlothian, VA, 23114, USA

    David E. Ross & Alfred L. Ochs

  2. Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA

    David E. Ross & Alfred L. Ochs

  3. Gentry, Locke, Rakes and Moore, LLP, Roanoke, VA, USA

    Travis J. Graham

Authors
  1. David E. Ross
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  2. Travis J. Graham
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  3. Alfred L. Ochs
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Correspondence to David E. Ross.

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Ross, D.E., Graham, T.J. & Ochs, A.L. Review of the Evidence Supporting the Medical and Legal Use of NeuroQuant® in Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury. Psychol. Inj. and Law 6, 75–80 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12207-012-9140-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12207-012-9140-9

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