title: Longitudinal follow-up of patients with mild traumatic brain injury by magnetic resonance spectroscopic technique.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the changes in the concentrations of neural markers immediately or several months after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).
  
  
  METHODS
  The metabolic markers of neurons in white matter tissues above the lateral ventricle were semi-quantitatively determined by employing 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopic technique (1-H-MRS) in 30 clinically diagnosed cases of mTBI. At the same time, the neurological functions of the subjects, including ability to pay attention, memory, working memory and operational capacity etc were also assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The patients were followed up for, on average, 13 days after mTBI and the results showed that Cre, PCre and Glx in the white matter tissues were significantly elevated in mTBI patients. 17 patients (57%) recovered from the injury during the follow-up (median was defined as the 40th post-trauma day). Comparison in terms of intelligence among groups revealed that the levels of neural markers of intelligence development was positively related with intelligence scores).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Change in Glx concentrations is most sensitive during trauma or in ensuing repairing processes, and might be different from normal status in the following months and Glx level tends to be accompanied with change in Cre, another energy-related marker.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Haikou People's Hospital, Renming Road 43, Haikou 570208, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Zi-Yi
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Yin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Qi-Zhou
authors.initials: QZ
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Hai-Yan
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: Wen-Rui
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Qian-Yu
authors.initials: QY
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Shui-Xi
authors.initials: SX
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Cai-Xiang
authors.initials: CX
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xiang-Jun
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Han