Graduation date: 2006

Mild traumatic brain injuries (MTBI) are the leading type of head injuries with appreciable risque of sequelae leading to functional and psychological deficits. Although mild traumatic brain injuries are frequently underdiagnosed by conventional imaging modalities, rapidly evolving techniques such as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) reveal subtle changes in white matter integrity as a result of head trauma and play an important role in refining diagnosis, therapeutic interventions and management of MTBI. In this dissertation we use diffusion tensor imaging to detect the microstructural changes induced by axonal injuries and to monitor their evolution during the recovery process. DTI data were previously acquired from 11 subjects, football players of age 19-23 years (median age 20 years). Three players had suffered a mild traumatic brain injury during the season and underwent scanning within 24 hours after the injury with follow-ups after one and two weeks. A set of diffusion indices, such as fractional anisotropy, axial, radial and mean diffusivity were derived from the diffusion tensor. Changes in diffusion indices in concussed subjects were analyzed based on two different approaches: whole brain analysis, using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) and region of interest analysis (ROI). In both approaches we use a voxelwise analysis to examine group differences in diffusion indices between five controls and three concussed subjects for all DTI scans. Additional statistical analysis was performed between control groups consisting of five and three non-injured players. Both analyses demonstrated that the MTBI group reveals increase in fractional anisotropy and decreases in transversal and mean diffusivity in cortical and subcortical areas within 24 hours after the injury. / No changes were detected in TBSS analysis for the follow-up data sets. Furthermore, our ROI approach revealed multiples regions with significantly different voxels, non-uniformly distributed throughout the brain, for all diffusion indices in all three scans. Three of the diffusion indices fractional anisotropy, mean and transversal diffusivity showed higher vulnerability to head trauma in subcortical and cortical areas than in regions in the lower brain. Recovery of white matter pathways occured at different locations in the brain at one and two weeks after head trauma. Strong recovery was observed in mean and transversal diffusivity in subcortical areas that correspond to the corticospinal tract. No recovery was found for fractional anisotropy and axial diffusivity in the same region. Also, decreases in fractional anisotropy and increases in transversal and axial diffusivity were observed in the spleninum of the corpus callosum. As voxelwise analysis performed on DTI data revealed white matter regions, which exhibit changes in diffusion parameters in the concussed group for all three scans, we conclude that diffusion tensor imaging is a powerful technique for early detection of axonal injuries and may serve as an important tool for monitoring microstructural changes during the recovery process. / by Angelica Hotiu. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Graduation date: 2004