TRAUMA-INDUCED DEGENERATIVE CHANGES IN BRAIN INJURY - A MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF 3 PATIENTS WITH PREINJURY AND POSTINJURY MR SCANS

Three patients with pretraumatic and posttraumatic brain injury (TBI) MR imaging of the brain are presented, Two patients had moderate to se vere injury, whereas the third patient sustained a mild injury. Using imaging software to conduct morphometric analyses, quantitative neurop athologic change was ascertained in each TBI patient, Each case was co mpared quantitatively to preinjury scans as well as to an age-matched control group, For the moderately to severely injured patients, extens ive degenerative changes were found throughout the various cortical st ructures and the cerebellum, whereas most midbrain and brainstem measu res did not demonstrate significant change, For these two patients, th e most significant changes occurred within the ventricular system, whe re generalized ventricular dilation was observed post-TBI, In the mild case, no significant anatomic changes were evident, These case studie s demonstrate the use of quantitative methods for examining the struct ural basis of TBI sequelae.