Citation

Michael AP, Stout J, Roskos PT, Bolzenius JD, Mogul D, Gfeller JD, Bucholz R. J. Neurotrauma 2015; 32(22): 1751-1758.

Affiliation

Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Department of Neurosurgery, St. Louis, Missouri, United States ; bucholrd@slu.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/neu.2015.3918

PMID

26131617

Abstract

Military service members frequently sustain traumatic brain injuries (TBI) while on active duty, a majority of which are related to explosive blasts and are mild in severity. Studies evaluating the cortical gray matter in individuals with injuries of this nature remain scarce. The purpose of this study was to assess cortical thickness in a sample of military veterans with chronic blast-related TBI. Thirty-eight veterans with mild TBI and 17 veterans with moderate TBI were compared to 58 demographically matched healthy civilians. All veterans with TBI sustained injuries related to a blast and were between 5 and 120 months post-injury (M = 62.08). Measures of PTSD and depression were administered, along with a battery of neuropsychological tests to assess cognition. The Freesurfer software package was used to calculate cortical thickness of the participants.

RESULTS demonstrated significant clusters of cortical thinning in the right hemispheric insula and inferior portions of the temporal and frontal lobe in both mild and moderate TBI participants. The TBI sample from this study demonstrated a high incidence of comorbid PTSD and depression symptoms, which is consistent with the prior literature. Cortical thickness values correlated with measures of PTSD, depression, and post-concussive symptoms. This study provides evidence of cortical thinning in the context of chronic blast-related mild and moderate TBI in military veterans who have co-morbid psychiatric symptoms. Our findings provide important insight into the natural progression of long-term cortical change in this population and may have implications for future clinical evaluation and treatment.

Language: en