Use of Diffusion Tensor MR Imaging and 3D tractography software in mild traumatic brain injury

Patients with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) pose an important dilemma to daily radiological practice because of a negative conventional brain MRI. The aim was to analyze the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) findings in the sub-acute stage (3 weeks from onset) in 10 MTBI patients and in 10 control subjects using a brain MRI (1.5 Tesla) and a novel DTI Task Card software. Average fractional anisotropy and apparent diffusion coefficient values were abnormal (FA=0.628 and ADC=7.298) and tractography images revealed discontinuation in long white matter tracts. The findings were significantly correlated to neuropsychological findings. Our findings suggest that cellular disturbance and breakdown is demonstrated in the white matter tracts in the sub-acute stage of TBI using DTI software and MRI.