Ping-Hong Yeh1, Binquan Wang, Terrence R.
Oakes, 2, Louis M. French3, David F. Moore3,
Gerard Riedy, 2,4
1Henry Jackson Foundation for Military
Medicine, Rockville, MD, United States; 2National Capital
Neuroimaging Consortium, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington DC; 3Defense
and Veterans Brain Injury Center, Walter Reed Army Medical Center,; 4Department
of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Uniformed Services University
Evaluating
the white matter disruption in mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is
challenging. The study investigated mTBI in military-related blast injury
using diffusion tensor imaging. High-dimensional spatial normalization of
diffusion tensor images, atlas reconstruction and tract-based spatial
analysis were applied to assess the physiological and geometric changes in
mTBI, and their relationships with neuropsychopathic symptoms. The features
of micro- and macro-structural changes varied within the mTBI group. Greater
severity of neuropsychopathic symptoms was associated with the disconnection
in fronto-(sub)cortical, fronto-limbic and inter-hemispheric circuitry. Optimizing
spatial normalization method can help detect white matter disruption in mTBI
using a low field clinical scanner.