MRI shows brain disruption in patients with post-concussion syndrome

PCS affects approximately 20 percent to 30 percent of people who suffer mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI)—defined by the World Health Organization as a traumatic event causing brief loss of consciousness and/or transient memory dysfunction or disorientation. Symptoms of PCS include headache, poor concentration and memory difficulty.

Conventional neuroimaging cannot distinguish which MTBI patients will develop PCS.

“Conventional imaging with CT or MRI is pretty much normal in MTBI patients, even though some go on to develop symptoms, including severe cognitive problems,” said Yulin Ge, M.D., associate professor, Department of Radiology at the NYU School of Medicine in New York City. “We want to try to better understand why and how these symptoms arise.”

Dr. Ge's study used MRI to look at the brain during its resting state, or the state when it is not engaged in a specific task, such as when the mind wanders or while daydreaming. The resting state is thought to involve connections among a number of regions, with the default mode network (DMN) playing a particularly important role.

“Baseline DMN is very important for information processing and maintenance,” Dr. Ge said.

Alterations in DMN have been found in several psychiatric disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, autism and schizophrenia, but little is known about DMN connectivity changes in MTBI.

For the new study, Dr. Ge and colleagues used resting-state functional MRI to compare 23 MTBI patients who had post-traumatic symptoms within two months of the injury and 18 age-matched healthy controls. Resting state MRI detects distinct changes in baseline oxygen level fluctuations associated with brain functional networks between patients with MTBI and control patients.

The MRI results showed that communication and information integration in the brain were disrupted among key DMN structures after mild head injury, and that the brain tapped into different neural resources to compensate for the impaired function.

“We found decreased functional connectivity in the posterior network of the brain and increased connectivity in the anterior component, probably due to functional compensation in patients with PCS,” Dr. Ge said. “The reduced posterior connectivity correlated positively with neurocognitive dysfunction.”

Dr. Ge and the other researchers hope to recruit additional MTBI patients for further studies with an eye toward developing a biomarker to monitor disease progression and recovery as well as treatment effects.

“We want to do studies to look at the changes in the network over time and correlate these functional changes with structural changes in the brain,” he said. “This could give us hints on treatments to bring back cognitive function.”

“Default-Mode Network Disruption in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.” Collaborating with Dr. Ge were Yongxia Zhou, Ph.D., Michael P. Milham, M.D., Ph.D., Yvonne W. Lui, M.D., Laura Miles, Ph.D., Joseph Reaume, B.S.R.T., Daniel K. Sodickson, M.D., Ph.D., and Robert I. Grossman, M.D.

Radiology is edited by Herbert Y. Kressel, M.D., Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., and owned and published by the Radiological Society of North America, Inc.

RSNA is an association of more than 50,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related scientists, promoting excellence in patient care and health care delivery through education, research and technologic innovation. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill.

For patient-friendly information on MRI, visit RadiologyInfo.org.

Media Contact

Linda Brooks EurekAlert!

More Information:

http://www.rsna.org

All latest news from the category: Medical Engineering

The development of medical equipment, products and technical procedures is characterized by high research and development costs in a variety of fields related to the study of human medicine.

innovations-report provides informative and stimulating reports and articles on topics ranging from imaging processes, cell and tissue techniques, optical techniques, implants, orthopedic aids, clinical and medical office equipment, dialysis systems and x-ray/radiation monitoring devices to endoscopy, ultrasound, surgical techniques, and dental materials.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Results for control of pollutants in water

Brazilian scientists tested a simple and sustainable method for monitoring and degrading a mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, compounds present in fossil fuels and industrial waste. An article published in the journal Catalysis…

A tandem approach for better solar cells

Perovskite-based solar cells were first proved in 2009 to have excellent light-absorbing properties of methylammonium lead bromide and methylammonium lead iodide, collectively referred to as lead halide perovskites or, more…

The behavior of ant queens is shaped by their social environment

Specialization of ant queens as mere egg-layers is reversible / Queen behavioral specialization is initiated and maintained by the presence of workers. The queens in colonies of social insects, such…

Partners & Sponsors