Diffusion tensor tractography indices in patients with frontal lobe injury and its correlation with neuropsychological tests.
OBJECTIVE
Diffusion tensor tractography (DTT) was performed to quantify diffuse axonal injury (DAI) in major white matter (WM) fiber bundles (FBs) of patients with frontal lobe injury and to correlate these changes with neuropsychological tests (NPT) at 6 month follow-up.


METHODS
DTT was performed in 21 patients with moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI) within week and after 6 month follow-up, and in controls. DTI indices were calculated from the entire FBs in patients as well as controls. Bonferroni multiple comparisons Post hoc test was performed for determining the changes in DTI indices. Paired t-test was performed between DTI indices at baseline and follow-up. Pearson's correlation was performed between NPT scores and DTI indices.


RESULTS
Significant changes in DTI indices were observed in some of the FBs as compared to controls which incompletely recovered at 6 month follow-up. DTI indices of different WM FBs correlated significantly with some of the NPT.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that DTT based quantification helps in assessment of DAI in patients with moderate frontal lobe injury. Some of the FBs recover partially at 6 month follow-up and correlate with NPT scores.
Department of Radiodiagnosis, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India.
Deepa
D
Pal
Rakesh K
RK
Gupta
Shruti
S
Agarwal
Abhishek
A
Yadav
Bal K
BK
Ojha
Ashish
A
Awasthi
Ram K S
RK
Rathore
Chandra M
CM
Pandey
Ponnada A
PA
Narayana
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016880:Anisotropy; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000601:surgery; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000293:injuries*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D019635:Neurosurgical Procedures; D055815:Young Adult