Serial changes in diffusion tensor imaging metrics of corpus callosum in moderate traumatic brain injury patients and their correlation with neuropsychometric tests: a 2-year follow-up study.
OBJECTIVE
To assess longitudinally the severity of diffuse axonal injury in the corpus callosum in patients with moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI) through quantitative diffusion tensor imaging and to correlate these changes with neuropsychometric tests (NPT) at 6 and 24 months after injury.


METHODS
Prospective longitudinal study.


METHODS
Sixteen patients with TBI and 17 age/sex-matched healthy controls.


METHODS
Patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging at 3 time points: within 2 weeks (range = 5-14 days), 6 months, and 24 months after injury. NPT could be performed only at 6 and 24 months.


RESULTS
In patients with TBI, a significant increase in fractional anisotropy (FA) values in genu as well as an insignificant decrease in radial diffusivity (RD) and mean diffusivity values in genu and splenium were observed over time, respectively. FA, RD, and mean diffusivity values continued to be abnormal in patients compared with controls at the end of 2 years. Although some NPT scores improved over time in these patients, these were still significantly impaired compared with controls.


CONCLUSIONS
FA and RD indices appear to be surrogate markers of microstructural alterations in patients over time and correlate significantly with some of the NPT scores. The recovery in these indices associated with recovery in neurocognitive deficits suggests that these indices may be used as an objective marker for residual injury in these patients.
Kumar
Raj
R
Department of Neurosurgery, Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University, Lucknow, India.
Saksena
Sona
S
Husain
Mazhar
M
Srivastava
Arti
A
Rathore
Ram K S
RK
Agarwal
Shruti
S
Gupta
Rakesh K
RK
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016880:Anisotropy; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000473:pathology*; D020833:Diffuse Axonal Injury / Q000175:diagnosis*; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D005260:Female; D016489:Head Injuries, Closed / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D055815:Young Adult