Stefan Blüml, Ph.D.

Daniel Olson¹, Melissa Lancaster², Ashley LaRoche³, Volkan Arpinar³, Michael McCrea³, and L Tugan Muftuler^3
1Biophysics, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, ²Neurology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, United States,³Neurosurgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, United States

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a prevalent injury for athletes in contact sports. In order to study changes in brain tissue microstructure after mTBI, we used Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging (DKI), an extension of DTI. DKI complements DTI by estimating non-Gaussianity of the molecular diffusion in complex tissue microstructures; therefore, it is hypothesized to be more sensitive and specific to subtle microstructural changes due to mild concussion. Radial kurtosis was significantly reduced in athletes with concussions.

Bryson B. Reynolds¹, Todd M. Chatlos¹, Donna K. Broshek², Max Wintermark³, Susan F. Saliba⁴, Howard P. Goodkin⁵, and T. Jason Druzgal^1
1Radiology and Medical Imaging, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, ²Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, ³Radiology, Stanford School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA, United States, ⁴Kinesiology, University of Virginia Curry School, Charlottesville, VA, United States, ⁵Neurology, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, VA, United States

Biomechanical head impact data shows that football players receive significantly more severe and more numerous subconcussive impacts than lacrosse players. Our data shows that in football players (N=21) there are significant increases in cortical-cortical functional connectivity and significant decreases in subcortical-cortical functional connectivity during the span of a season as measured by rs-fMRI (p<0.001), however there were no observed changes in lacrosse players during a practice season (N=30). Our preliminary data presents a compelling argument that rs-fMRI is capable of detecting and demonstrating physiologic changes in a single football season, likely caused by subconcussive impacts.

Wei Li^1,2, Justin Long¹, Lora Watts¹, Qiang Shen¹, Robert Boggs¹, Zhao Jiang¹, Yunxia Li¹, and Timothy Q. Duong^1,2
1Research Imaging Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States, ²Ophthalmology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States

We previously reported CBF and vascular reactivity dysfunction, T2, ADC, and FA abnormality following mild TBI in a rat model. However, it is unclear how the widespread blood-brain barrier permeability changes affect tissue outcome within and lateral to the impact site. This study evaluated the effects of changes in blood-brain barrier permeability described as the Ktrans rate constant on CBF, T2, ADC, and FA diffusion, and by longitudinally monitoring changes of these parameters in the tissue within the impact area and its surrounding. Multimodal MRI measurements were made longitudinally from 1 hour and up to 7 days post TBI.

Karen A. Tong, M.D.