[Correlation among clinical and morphological findings in a diffuse axonal injury]

In a man of 56 years--a victim of traffic accident, contusions in both temporal lobes of the brain and a small subdural and subarachnoid haemorrhage were diagnosed by CT and MR examination. According to the findings of petechial haemorrhages in the corpus callosum a diffuse axonal injury was clinically diagnosed. After 2 months the patient died. Excisions of corpus callosum and the brain-stem were examined by histological staining including Palmgren@s method and by immunohistochemical detection of neuron-specific enolase (NSE) in damaged axons. Clinical findings were compared with morphological findings, i.e. autopsy, histological and immunohistochemical examination. The possibilities of clinical diagnostics of diffuse axonal injury are discussed.