Haiying Tang1, Asamoah Bosomtwi2, shalini Jaiswal1, Sanjeev Mathur2, Kimberley Byrnes3, Reed Selwyn1
1Radiology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, United States; 2Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine (CNRM), HJF, Bethesda, MD, United States; 3Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Genetics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, United States
The present pre-clinical multi-modal imaging integrates the emerging molecular imaging (PET) and MRI techniques to assist the traumatic brain injury (TBI) research using the rat model of TBI. We propose to investigate the post-injury metabolism changes in injured brains using the deoxyglucose (18F) (FDG) micro PET imaging (mPET). MR imaging techniques including the T1/T2/T2*/diffusion/perfusion MRI, susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI), and MR spectroscopy (MRS). These provide comprehensive information at the structural and functional levels that can help us investigate imaging markers of disease progression, white matter degeneration, vascular abnormalities, and micro-hemorrhages following TBI. PET and MR images are spatially co registered. Correlations between changes in glucose metabolism and MRI perfusion and diffusion in various brain regions and in lesion and perilesional regions in rats that undergo mild-moderate TBI are investigated.