Metabolic Characterization of Gray & White Matter in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury with 3D Proton MR Spectroscopy

Ivan Kirov¹, Assaf Tal¹, James Babb¹, Joseph Reaume¹, Robert Grossman¹, Oded Gonen¹

Quantitative MR studies in mild traumatic brain injury report conflicting results on the sites and types of injury. This implies that damage is heterogeneous, diffuse and minimal. We employed three-dimensional proton MR spectroscopy to assess metabolic concentrations in all gray and white matter within the volume-of-interest of 22 patients and 11 controls. This resulted in increased sensitivity to diffuse injury in each tissue type, while suffering minimal partial volume effects owing to small (0.75 cc) voxels. The results revealed no evidence of brain atrophy, glial or energy abnormalities and a statistical trend suggesting neuronal damage in the white matter.