Abstract #0859

MRS and DTI Examination of Immature Rats Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Lesley May Foley¹, Emin Fidan², Henry L Alexander², Lee Ann New², Patrick M Kochanek^2,3, T Kevin Hitchens^1,4, and Hulya Bayir^2,3

¹Pittsburgh NMR Center for Biomedical Research, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ²Safar Center for Resuscitation Research, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ³Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ⁴Animal Imaging Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Recently we developed a closed-skull repeated mild (rm) TBI model in postnatal day (PND) 18 rats. We hypothesized that MRS and DTI can detect early microstructural changes of brain and metabolite changes in the hippocampus. Alterations in NAA and Ins after mTBI and rmTBI likely reflect neuroaxonal damage and glial proliferation, respectively. Reduced FA and increased AD in the white matter may reflect a loss of integrity a possible indication of damage to myelin/axonal membranes or demyelination. ¹H-MRS and DTI can identify subtle metabolic and structural alterations in the hippocampus which appears normal on histological analysis and conventional MR images.

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