G. Worley et al., 18-FLUORODEOXYGLUCOSE POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY, Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 37(3), 1995, pp. 213-220
Twenty-two previously normal children and adolescents who suffered a s
evere, non-penetrating traumatic brain injury had PET during rehabilit
ation at a median of 1.5 months after the injury. Outcome was assessed
at a median of 25 months after brain injury. 16 subjects had CT or MR
I within 24 days of PET and 11 subjects had a second PET at the point
of outcome (median 28 months after first PET). The PET score (obtained
by adding the score of 15 brain regions: normal metabolism=1; reduced
=0) was significantly associated with the clinical outcome measure. PE
T earlier than 12 weeks after head trauma correlated with outcome, but
later PET did not. PET scores improved significantly between rehabili
tation and outcome for the 11 subjects who had two PETs, but improveme
nt was not associated with improvement in clinical condition. PET scor
e did not add to the amount of variance explained in the last regressi
on model for prediction of outcome when the results of contemporaneous
CT/MRI and clinical condition were taken into account. The data sugge
st that routine PET during rehabilitation is no more useful than conte
mporaneous CT or MRI for prediction of outcome.