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Updated: Jun 27, 2026
Advanced Diffusion Imaging in The Hippocampus of Rats with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
Published on: August 14, 2019
Use of diffusion tensor imaging to examine subacute white matter injury progression in moderate to severe traumatic
Gahl Greenberg1, David J Mikulis, Kevin Ng
1Department of Medical Imaging, Division of Neuroradiology, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Objective:
To demonstrate subacute progression of white matter (WM) injury (4.5mo-2.5y postinjury) in patients with traumatic brain injury using diffusion-tensor imaging.
Design:
Prospective, repeated-measures, within-subjects design.
Setting:
Inpatient neurorehabilitation program and teaching hospital MRI department.
Participants:
Brain-injured adults (N=13) with a mean Glasgow Coma Scale score of 7.67+/-4.16.
Interventions:
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures:
Fractional anisotropy (FA) values were measured at 4.5 and 29 months postinjury in right and left frontal and temporal deep WM tracts and the anterior and posterior corpus callosum.
Results:
FA significantly decreased in frontal and temporal tracts: right frontal (.38+/-.06 to .30+/-.06; P<.005), left frontal (.37+/-.06 to .32+/-.06; P<.05), right temporal (.28+/-.05 to .22+/-.018; P<.005), and left temporal (.28+/-.05 to .24+/-.02; P<.05). No significant changes were in the corpus callosum.
Conclusions:
Preliminary results demonstrate progression of WM damage as evidenced by interval changes in diffusion anisotropy. Future research should examine the relationship between decreased FA and long-term clinical outcome.
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