Abstract #0376

A Longitudinal Evaluation of Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging in Patients with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Jesse A. Stokum¹, Jiachen Zhuo¹, Jacqueline Janowich¹, Rao Gullapalli¹

¹Magnetic Resonance Research Center, Department of Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States

Diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) has been shown to be sensitive to microstructural changes and may provide additional information that complements information from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in evaluation of traumatic brain injury (TBI). In this prospective study, parameters from these techniques were evaluated on 36 patients who suffered mild TBI at three time points following injury in gray and white matter regions and were compared with reaction times on neurocognitive tests. DKI parameters in the internal capsule appear to be sensitive to the underlying demyelination pathological changes and are inversely correlated with reaction times on neurocognitive tests.