![Detecting Combat Brain Injury with DTI]()
Neuroimaging identifies traumatic brain injury in combat veterans, but questions have been raised whether differences between veterans and controls might skew results. To address this problem, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), which shows microscopic changes in white matter, was performed for the first time on veterans matched with controls of very similar backgrounds. Michael L. Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., compared DTI images from 16 blast-exposed combat veterans to images of 18 of the veterans’ siblings and first cousins, who grew up in the same community but were not exposed to combat. Abnormalities consistent with post-traumatic effects in veterans were not seen in the closely matched controls. The findings, published online on August 17 in Neuroradiology, further support the usefulness of DTI to accurately detect brain abnormalities resulting from trauma. Dr. Lipton is professor of radiology and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Einstein and medical director of MRI services at Montefiore.
Posted on: Thursday, September 20, 2018