title: Injury of the corticoreticular pathway in patients with mild traumatic brain injury: A diffusion tensor tractography study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Little is known about injury of the corticoreticular pathway (CRP) in patients with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI). The current study attempted to investigate injury of the CRP in patients with mild TBI, using diffusion tensor tractography (DTT).
  
  
  METHODS
  This study recruited 29 consecutive patients with proximal weakness following mild TBI and 25 control subjects. The CRP was reconstructed and the fractional anisotropy (FA) value, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value and fibre volume of the CRP were measured. The patients were classified according to the configurational classification of the CRP injury: type A-the CRP showed narrowing, type B-the CRP showed partial tearing at subcortical white matter or brainstem and type C-the CRP showed discontinuation at the subcortical white matter or brainstem.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No significant differences in FA and ADC of the CRP were observed between the patient and control groups (p > 0.05). In contrast, the tract volume of the CRP was significantly lower in the patient group than in the control group (p < 0.05). According to the configurational classification of the CRP injury on DTT, the patients were classified as follows: among 58 hemispheres of 29 patients: type A-9 hemispheres (15.5%) of eight patients, type B-30 hemispheres (51.7%) of 22 patients and type C-13 hemispheres (22.4%) of 11 patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrated injury of the CRP in patients who showed proximal weakness following mild TBI, using DTT.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation , College of Medicine, Yeungnam University , Daegu , Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Han Do
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: a Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation , College of Medicine, Yeungnam University , Daegu , Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sung Ho
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Jang
keywords: Corticoreticulospinal tract; corticoreticular pathway; diffusion tensor imaging; mild traumatic brain injury; motor weakness