Application of diffusion tensor imaging in evaluating the TBI severity

SONG Chengru; CHENG Jingliang; SUN Mengtian; ZHANG Yong

Abstract：Objective To evaluate the utility of DTI in the evaluation of the TBI severity. Methods Mild,moderate and se-vere TBI patients(20 respectively),and 20 healthy volunteers were collected. All patients underwent conventional MRI,DTI and GCS assessment. ROI of 27 brain regions were outlined and the FA values were recorded. For FA values of each ROI, statistic comparisons among the four groups were made,then pairwise comparison was processed by corresponding test methods. The corre-lation analysis between GCS scores and FA values of each region were performed. P <0.05 was considered statistically signifi-cant. Results Totally,25 regions(the corpus callosum,bilateral cingulate bundle,bilateral centrum semiovale,etc.) differed in FA values between the four groups ( P <0.05). Further, the result of pairwise comparisons among the four groups showed that:for volunteer and mild,volunteer and moderate,volunteer and severe,mild and moderate,mild and severe, moderate and severe,the number of regions that the FA values got statistical significance were 14,20,25,5,23,17,respectively. For totally 26 regions,for exmaple,the corpus callosum and bilateral cingulate bundle,the FA values got positive correlation with the GCS scores. Wherein,the correlation coefficient of the right cingulum was maximum( r =0.872). Conclusion The clinical applica-tions of DTI in diagnosing and evaluating the TBI severity is of great significance.