Investigating Diffusion Time Dependent Kurtosis Evolution in Repeated Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Mice

Probing the diffusion time dependence of diffusional kurtosis within brain microstructure is being recognized as a valuable method to study various neurological pathologies, however, its use in the study of repeated mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) has not been explored. In this work, we investigated differences in the time-dependence of diffusional kurtosis in injured and sham mice using oscillating gradient spin echo (OGSE) diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI). The results of this work show promising differences in kurtosis within the hippocampus of injured and sham mice, illustrating the sensitivity of OGSE DKI in detecting long-lasting pathological microstructural changes following brain injury.