Advanced imaging technique predicts neurodegeneration following brain injury
By using an advanced form of MRI scanning, researchers from the UK Dementia Research Institute (London, UK) have been able to accurately predict, for the first time, the extent of chronic neurodegeneration in people who have experienced traumatic brain injury. The study, which has been published in Brain, looked at a particular type of injury called diffuse axonal injury. This occurs when the shearing forces sustained during head injury damage or sever nerve fibers in the brain’s white matter. The researchers hypothesized that the severity and location of diffuse axonal injury predicts the degree of progressive post-traumatic neurodegeneration. To test...