Margalit Haber, Franck Amyot, Kimbra Kenney, Tawny Meredith-Duliba, Carol Moore, Erika Silverman, Jamie Podell, Yi-Yu Chou, Dzung L Pham, John Butman, Hanzang Lu, Ramon Diaz-Arrastia, Danielle Sandsmark
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a powerful tool for visualizing traumatic brain injury(TBI)-related lesions. Trauma-induced encephalomalacia is frequently identified by its hyperintense appearance on fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequences. In addition to parenchymal lesions, TBI commonly results in cerebral microvascular injury, but its anatomic relationship to parenchymal encephalomalacia is not well characterized. The current study utilized a multimodal MRI protocol to assess microstructural tissue integrity [via mean diffusivity (MD) and fractional aniosotropy (FA)], and altered vascular function [via cerebral blood flow (CBF) and cerebral vascular reactivity (CVR)], within regions of visible encephalomalacia and normal appearing tissue in 27 chronic TBI (minimum 6 months after injury) subjects...
April 2, 2018: Journal of Neurotrauma