title: Altered Cerebellar White Matter Integrity in Patients with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in the Acute Stage.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Imaging studies of traumatic brain injury demonstrate that the cerebellum is often affected. We aim to examine fractional anisotropy alteration in acute-phase mild traumatic brain injury patients in cerebellum-related white matter tracts.
  
  
  METHODS
  This prospective study included 47 mild traumatic brain injury patients in the acute stage and 37 controls. MR imaging and neurocognitive tests were performed in patients within 7 days of injury. White matter integrity was examined by using diffusion tensor imaging. We used three approaches, tract-based spatial statistics, graphical-model-based multivariate analysis, and region-of-interest analysis, to detect altered cerebellar white matter integrity in mild traumatic brain injury patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results from three analysis methods were in accordance with each other, and suggested fractional anisotropy in the middle cerebellar peduncle and the pontine crossing tract was changed in the acute-phase mild traumatic brain injury patients, relative to controls (adjusted p-value < 0.05). Higher fractional anisotropy in the middle cerebellar peduncle was associated with worse performance in the fluid cognition composite (r = -0.289, p-value = 0.037).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Altered cerebellar fractional anisotropy in acute-phase mild traumatic brain injury patients is localized in specific regions and statistically associated with cognitive deficits detectable on neurocognitive testing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, 155 Hanzhong Road, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: Zhongqiu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Acupuncture & Rehabilitation, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, 155 Hanzhong Road, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: Wenzhong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, 155 Hanzhong Road, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: Yongkang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Fifth People's Hospital of Shanghai, Fudan University, Shanghai 200240, China.
authors.forename: Tianyao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, 155 Hanzhong Road, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Shanghai East Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200120, China.
authors.forename: Jianhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Shanghai East Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200120, China.
authors.forename: Guoxing
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, United States of America.
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016880:Anisotropy; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D066127:White Matter / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult