The primary aim of this project is to develop objective measures for evaluation of mild and moderate Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI) using advanced MR neuroimaging methods. MTBI represents a major public health problem for which the current assessment measures are limited in their ability to quantify the severity of injury or to indicate possible outcomes. The pilot period of this project has demonstrated that Volumetric Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging (MRSI) at 3 Tesla can detect widespread metabolic changes in the brain that correlate with the degree of injury, even for mild injury and in the absence of significant structural MRI findings. It is now proposed to extend this study to improve characterization of these changes and to evaluate the use MRSI and diffusion-weighted MRI measures for prognosis of functional outcomes following mild and moderate closed-head injury. Measurements will include N-Acetylaspartate and choline, metabolic markers known to be sensitive to neuronal dysfunction and membrane turnover, and Fractional Anisotropy, which reflects the degree of neuronal organization. Results will be correlated with findings from structural MRI, initial clinical assessments, and neuropsychological evaluation of functional outcomes at multiple time points after injury. A secondary aim of this study is to examine possible associations between post- concussive symptoms, which are debilitating and persistent consequences in a fraction of this patient group, and neuroimaging measures.
A third aim i s to optimize the quantitative and multiparametric neuroimaging measures to improve characterization of the spatial extent and the degree of metabolic consequences of the injury, and their associations with functional outcome measures. It is hypothesized that the improved sensitivity and spatial coverage of the proposed neuroimaging measures will improve characterization of mild and moderate injury.

Public Health Relevance

This project will evaluate improved quantitative MR neuroimaging methods for assessment of the metabolic and micro-structural changes associated with mild brain injury. These objective measures will guide treatment and patient management decisions following mild head trauma, as well as providing expectations for long-term consequences of the injury. Patient groups affected by this common injury include sports-related injuries and blast-related concussion.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01NS055107-06
Application #
8013887
Study Section
Biomedical Imaging Technology Study Section (BMIT)
Program Officer
Hicks, Ramona R
Project Start
2006-06-01
Project End
2012-12-31
Budget Start
2011-01-01
Budget End
2011-12-31
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$335,223
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Miami School of Medicine
Department
Radiation-Diagnostic/Oncology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
052780918
City
Coral Gables
State
FL
Country
United States
Zip Code
33146
Maudsley, Andrew A; Govind, Varan; Saigal, Gaurav et al. (2017) Longitudinal MR Spectroscopy Shows Altered Metabolism in Traumatic Brain Injury. J Neuroimaging 27:562-569
Maudsley, Andrew A; Goryawala, Mohammed Z; Sheriff, Sulaiman (2017) Effects of tissue susceptibility on brain temperature mapping. Neuroimage 146:1093-1101
Widerström-Noga, Eva; Govind, Varan; Adcock, James P et al. (2016) Subacute Pain after Traumatic Brain Injury Is Associated with Lower Insular N-Acetylaspartate Concentrations. J Neurotrauma 33:1380-9
Maudsley, Andrew A; Govind, Varan; Levin, Bonnie et al. (2015) Distributions of Magnetic Resonance Diffusion and Spectroscopy Measures with Traumatic Brain Injury. J Neurotrauma 32:1056-63
Sabati, Mohammad; Zhan, Jiping; Govind, Varan et al. (2014) Impact of reduced k-space acquisition on pathologic detectability for volumetric MR spectroscopic imaging. J Magn Reson Imaging 39:224-34
Maudsley, A A; Govind, V; Arheart, K L (2012) Associations of age, gender and body mass with 1H MR-observed brain metabolites and tissue distributions. NMR Biomed 25:580-93
Maudsley, Andrew A; Domenig, Claudia; Ramsay, R Eugene et al. (2010) Application of volumetric MR spectroscopic imaging for localization of neocortical epilepsy. Epilepsy Res 88:127-38
Govind, Varan; Gold, Stuart; Kaliannan, Krithica et al. (2010) Whole-brain proton MR spectroscopic imaging of mild-to-moderate traumatic brain injury and correlation with neuropsychological deficits. J Neurotrauma 27:483-96
Maudsley, A A; Domenig, C; Govind, V et al. (2009) Mapping of brain metabolite distributions by volumetric proton MR spectroscopic imaging (MRSI). Magn Reson Med 61:548-59