New MRI technique aids concussion assessment

Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Montefiore Medical Center discovered a new technique that will aid in assessing concussion victims. Each year, more than one million Americans sustain concussions or mild traumatic brain injuries, of which 30 percent suffer permanent impairment. An MRI technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was conducted on 19 women and 15 men diagnosed with mTBI at Montefiore and on 30 healthy controls, within two weeks of injury and after three and six months. Imaging data were analyzed using a new software tool, Enhanced Z-score Microstructural Assessment Pathology, developed by the researchers. This allowed them to examine microstructural abnormalities in the entire brain of the patients. Areas of abnormally low fractional anisotropy (FA) were observed in concussion patients only, each having a unique spatial pattern of low FA.