Virginia FJ Newcombe1,2, Doris A. Chatfield1,2, Martin R. Coleman3, Joanne G. Outtrim1,2, Sarah Vowler4, Anne Manktelow1,2, Justin Cross5, Sally G. Harding2, Peter JA Hutchinson6, Jonathan P. Coles1,2, T.Adrian Carpenter2, John D. Pickard3,6, Guy B. Williams2, David K. Menon1,3
1Division of Anaesthesia, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK; 2Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK; 3Cambridge Impaired Consciousness Group, Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre; 4Centre for Applied Medical Statistics, University of Cambridge; 5Department of Radiology, Addenbrookes Hospital; 6Academic Department of Neurosurgery, University of Cambridge
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. The extent and severity of traumatic axonal injury (TAI) is greatly underestimated by CT and conventional MR sequences, and these appearances often correlate poorly with functional outcome. This study investigated trends in diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) parameters in the central white matter to clinical outcome as defined by the Glasgow Outcome Score (GOS) in a cohort of sixty-one patients with clinical outcomes ranging from the vegetative state (VS) and minimally conscious state (MCS) spectrum (GOS 2) through to good recovery (GOS 5).