Clinical usefulness of diffusion tensor imaging in patients with transtentorial herniation following traumatic brain injury
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Updated: May 30, 2026

Advanced Diffusion Imaging in The Hippocampus of Rats with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
Published on: August 14, 2019
Hee Kyung Cho1, Ji Heon Hong, Seong Ho Kim
1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University , Taegu , Republic of Korea.
Primary Objective:
This study investigated the clinical usefulness of diffusion tensor tractography (DTT) for elucidation of the corticospinal tract (CST) state in patients with transtentorial herniation (TH) following traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Methods And Procedures:
Eleven consecutive patients with TH were recruited among 175 patients with TBI. Patients who showed TH were classified into two groups according to DTT findings: Group 1: the integrity of CST was preserved, Group 2: the integrity of CST was disrupted at the cerebral peduncle (CP) or pons.
Outcomes And Results:
Five patients belonged to Group 1 of TH, six patients to Group 2 of TH. On DTT of Group 1, fractional anisotropy values of the CP and pons along the CST in the affected hemisphere were lower than those of the unaffected hemisphere; however, the difference was not significant (p > 0.05). In Group 2, fractional anisotropy values of the CP and pons in the affected hemisphere were significantly lower than those of the unaffected hemisphere (p < 0.05).
Conclusions:
It was found that DTT is useful in evaluation of the presence and the severity of CST injury in patients with TH following TBI.
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Traumatic Brain Injury l: Introduction
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These technologies include computerized axial tomography (CAT or CT scans), positron-emission tomography (PET scans), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS).

