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Updated: Jun 13, 2026
Advanced Diffusion Imaging in The Hippocampus of Rats with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
Published on: August 14, 2019
Texture analysis of MR images of patients with mild traumatic brain injury
Kirsi K Holli1, Lara Harrison, Prasun Dastidar
1Medical Imaging Center, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland. kirsi.holli@tut.fi
Background:
Our objective was to study the effect of trauma on texture features in cerebral tissue in mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI). Our hypothesis was that a mild trauma may cause microstructural changes, which are not necessarily perceptible by visual inspection but could be detected with texture analysis (TA).
Methods:
We imaged 42 MTBI patients by using 1.5 T MRI within three weeks of onset of trauma. TA was performed on the area of mesencephalon, cerebral white matter at the levels of mesencephalon, corona radiata and centrum semiovale and in different segments of corpus callosum (CC) which have been found to be sensitive to damage. The same procedure was carried out on a control group of ten healthy volunteers. Patients' TA data was compared with the TA results of the control group comparing the amount of statistically significantly differing TA parameters between the left and right sides of the cerebral tissue and comparing the most discriminative parameters.
Results:
There were statistically significant differences especially in several co-occurrence and run-length matrix based parameters between left and right side in the area of mesencephalon, in cerebral white matter at the level of corona radiata and in the segments of CC in patients. Considerably less difference was observed in the healthy controls.
Conclusions:
TA revealed significant changes in texture parameters of cerebral tissue between hemispheres and CC segments in TBI patients. TA may serve as a novel additional tool for detecting the conventionally invisible changes in cerebral tissue in MTBI and help the clinicians to make an early diagnosis.
Insights
Texture analysis (TA) detected significant microstructural changes in cerebral tissue of mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) patients. These subtle changes, invisible to the eye, can aid in early MTBI diagnosis.
Area of Science:
- Neuroimaging
- Medical Physics
- Radiology
Background:
- Mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) can cause subtle microstructural changes in cerebral tissue.
- These changes may not be apparent through visual inspection of MRI scans.
- Texture analysis (TA) offers a potential method to detect these otherwise invisible alterations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of trauma on texture features in cerebral tissue in MTBI patients.
- To determine if TA can identify microstructural changes not visible on standard MRI.
- To evaluate TA as a tool for early MTBI diagnosis.
Main Methods:
- 42 MTBI patients and 10 healthy controls underwent 1.5 T MRI within three weeks of trauma.
- Texture analysis (TA) was applied to specific brain regions, including the mesencephalon, cerebral white matter, and corpus callosum (CC) segments.
- TA data from patients were compared to controls, analyzing interhemispheric and CC segment differences.
Main Results:
- Statistically significant differences in TA parameters (co-occurrence and run-length matrix based) were observed between cerebral hemispheres and CC segments in MTBI patients.
- These differences were particularly noted in the mesencephalon, corona radiata, and CC segments.
- Healthy controls showed considerably fewer differences in TA parameters.
Conclusions:
- TA successfully revealed significant changes in cerebral tissue texture parameters in MTBI patients.
- These findings suggest TA can detect conventionally invisible microstructural changes in MTBI.
- TA shows promise as an additional diagnostic tool for early MTBI detection.
