Texture analysis of MR images of patients with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

We imaged 42 MTBI patients by using 1.5 T MRI within three weeks of onset of trauma. TA was performed on the area of mesencephalon, cerebral white matter at the levels of mesencephalon, corona radiata and centrum semiovale and in different segments of corpus callosum (CC) which have been found to be sensitive to damage. The same procedure was carried out on a control group of ten healthy volunteers. Patients' TA data was compared with the TA results of the control group comparing the amount of statistically significantly differing TA parameters between the left and right sides of the cerebral tissue and comparing the most discriminative parameters.There were statistically significant differences especially in several co-occurrence and run-length matrix based parameters between left and right side in the area of mesencephalon, in cerebral white matter at the level of corona radiata and in the segments of CC in patients. Considerably less difference was observed in the healthy controls.TA revealed significant changes in texture parameters of cerebral tissue between hemispheres and CC segments in TBI patients. TA may serve as a novel additional tool for detecting the conventionally invisible changes in cerebral tissue in MTBI and help the clinicians to make an early diagnosis.Mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) accounts for 70 - 90% of all treated brain injuries [1]. MTBI is usually caused by a relatively mild blow to the brain that causes just enough physical injury to possibly compromise the normal brain functions of memory, attention, mental organization, and logical thinking may be compromised. Damage to the brain is often found in the corpus callosum, brain stem, and in subcortical white matter (WM) regions at the site of impact or on the contralateral side after MTBI [2].One of the biggest challenges in addressing neuropsychological functioning and recovery from MTBI is the diagnosing itself. A variety of neuroimaging modalities can be used to assist in making the