Association Between Anatomic and Clinical Indicators of Injury Severity After Moderate-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: A Pilot Study Using Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging

This study sought to identify whether an anatomical indicator of injury severity as measured by multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) including magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), is predictive of a clinical measure of injury severity after moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Nine individuals who were admitted to acute inpatient rehabilitation after moderate-to-severe TBI completed a comprehensive MRI protocol prior to discharge from rehabilitation, which included conventional MRI with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Of those, five of nine also underwent brain MRE to measure the brain parenchyma stiffness. Clinical severity of injury was measured by the length of post-traumatic amnesia (PTA). MRI-assessed non-hemorrhage contusion score and hemorrhage score, DTI-measured white matter fractional anisotropy, and MRE-measured lesion stiffness were all assessed. A higher hemorrhagic score was significantly associated with a longer length of PTA (