• Radiology · Apr 2013

    Quantitative diffusion-tensor tractography of long association tracts in patients with traumatic brain injury without associated findings at routine MR imaging.

    • Nina Brandstack, Timo Kurki, and Olli Tenovuo.
    • Department of Radiology, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland. nimabr@utu.fi
    • Radiology. 2013 Apr 1;267(1):231-9.

    PurposeTo evaluate whether quantitative diffusion-tensor tractography can show abnormalities in long association tracts of subjects with symptoms after traumatic brain injury without any visible signs of intracranial or intraparenchymal abnormalities of obvious traumatic origin at routine magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and to determine the number and type of these abnormalities.Materials And MethodsThe study was approved by the local ethics committee, and informed consent was obtained from all subjects. Diffusion-tensor tractography was performed at 3.0 T in 106 consecutive clinical patients with traumatic brain injury without abnormalities at conventional MR imaging (age, 16-56 years) and 62 age- and sex-matched control subjects. Volume, mean apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), and mean fractional anisotropy (FA) were measured in the following tracts: uncinate fasciculus, superior cingulum, temporal cingulum, superior longitudinal fasciculus, arcuate fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and inferior longitudinal fasciculus. Statistical analyses were based on repeated-measures analysis of covariance.ResultsIn control subjects, tract volumes showed large variability whereas FA and ADC showed small variability. In several tracts, mean FA values correlated negatively with the respective volumes. In patients with brain injury, FA values were reduced in both uncinate fasciculi, both inferior fronto-occipital fasciculi, and in the right inferior longitudinal fasciculus compared with control subjects (P < .05). Diffusivity was increased in half of the tracts (P < .05). The tract volumes were not significantly reduced.ConclusionQuantitative diffusion-tensor tractography is able to show posttraumatic FA and ADC abnormalities in patients with normal findings at conventional MR imaging in several association tracts, most commonly the uncinate fasciculus.Supplemental Materialhttp://radiology.rsna.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1148/radiol.12112570/-/DC1.RSNA, 2013

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.