Tract-based Bayesian multivariate analysis of mild traumatic brain injury.
OBJECTIVE
Detecting brain regions characterizing mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) by combining Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) and Graphical-model-based Multivariate Analysis (GAMMA).


METHODS
This study included 39 mTBI patients and 28 normal controls. Local research ethics committee approved this prospective study. Diffusion-tensor imaging was performed in mTBI patients within 7 days of injury. Skeletonized fractional anisotropy (FA) maps were generated by using TBSS. Brain regions characterizing mTBI were detected by GAMMA.


RESULTS
Two clusters of lower frontal white matter FA were present in mTBI patients. We constructed classifiers based on FA values in these two clusters to differentiate mTBI and controls. The mean accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity, across five different classifiers, were 0.80, 0.94, and 0.61, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Combining TBSS and GAMMA can detect neuroimaging biomarkers characterizing mTBI.
Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 155 Hanzhong Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210029, China.
Yongkang
Y
Liu
Department of Radiology, East Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200120, China.
Tianyao
T
Wang
Department of Radiology, East Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200120, China.
Xiao
X
Chen
Department of Radiology, East Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200120, China.
Jianhua
J
Zhang
Department of Radiology, East Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200120, China.
Guoxing
G
Zhou
Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 155 Hanzhong Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210029, China.
Zhongqiu
Z
Wang
Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.
Rong
R
Chen
D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D003196:Computer Graphics; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012984:Software