Janna
L. Harris1, In-Young Choi1, 2, Phil Lee1,
3, Hung-Wen Yeh4, William M. Brooks1
1Hoglund Brain Imaging Center, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, United States; 2Department of Neurology, University of Kansas Medical Center; 3Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Kansas Medical Center; 4Department of Biostatistics, University of Kansas Medical Center
A traumatic brain injury (TBI) initiates a progressive neurodegeneration that develops over days to weeks following the initial physical impact. We used 1H-MRS one hour after experimental TBI in rats to examine two brain regions: a proximal VOI containing tissue destined to degenerate into a lesion cyst, and a more distal VOI that would not develop any overt MR-visible lesion. Our results demonstrate a different early spectroscopic profile in tissue destined to degenerate vs. tissue destined to survive. We propose that 1H-MRS early after TBI could be useful for predicting the extent and location of ultimate tissue damage in TBI patients.