High Resolution Diffusion Tensor Imaging of Cortical-Subcortical White Matter Tracts in TBI.

摘要

Patients with TBI present with variable degrees of chronic neurobehavioral deficits, defined as disturbances of cognition, mood, and behavior, which interfere with a return to their previous level of function and quality of life. Current clinical assessments of TBI rely on various cognitive tests and especially on patient self-report. However, self-report of injury variables such as loss of consciousness and post-traumatic amnesia tend to be inaccurate and are unreliable. In addition, while standard neuropsychological testing of cognitive function can reliably assess moderate to severe TBI, it lacks the sensitivity for milder TBI. Given that even mild TBI can result in sustained neurobehavioral deficits years after the injury it is crucial to develop objective and quantifiable methods of assessing the neuropathology in TBI in order to better diagnose, treat, and assess the long term outcomes of TBI of all severities. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has recently shown promise for the evaluation of neuropathology in patients with mild to moderate TBI. While still inadequate in evaluating individual patients, further refining of DTI techniques could provide the needed sensitivity and specificity to facilitate clinically accurate diagnosis.