Citation

Meyer EJ, Stout JN, Chung AW, Grant PE, Mannix R, Gagoski B. Front. Neurol. 2019; 10: e556.

Affiliation

Department of Radiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Frontiers Research Foundation)

DOI

10.3389/fneur.2019.00556

PMID

31231298

PMCID

PMC6566128

Abstract

Background: Nearly 20% of US adolescents report at least one lifetime concussion. Pathophysiologic models suggest that traumatic biomechanical forces caused by rotational deceleration lead to shear stress, which triggers a neurometabolic cascade beginning with excitotoxicity and leading to significant energy demands and a period of metabolic crisis for the injured brain. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (¹H MRS) offers a means for non-invasive measurement of neurometabolic changes after concussion. Objective: Describe longitudinal changes in metabolites measured in vivo in the brains of adolescent patients with concussion. Methods: We prospectively recruited 9 patients ages 11 to 20 who presented to a pediatric Emergency Department within 24 h of concussion. Patients underwent MRI scanning within 72 h (acute, n = 8), 2 weeks (subacute, n = 7), and at approximately 1 year (chronic, n = 7). Healthy, age and sex-matched controls were recruited and scanned once (n = 9). ¹H MRS was used to measure N-acetyl-aspartate, choline, creatine, glutamate + glutamine, and myo-inositol concentrations in six regions of interest: left and right frontal white matter, posterior white matter and thalamus. Results: There was a significant increase in total thalamus glutamate+glutamine/choline at the subacute (p = 0.010) and chronic (p = 0.010) time points, and a significant decrease in total white matter myo-inositol/choline (p = 0.030) at the chronic time point as compared to controls. Conclusion: There are no differences in ¹H MRS measurements in the acute concussive period; however, changes in glutamate+glutamine and myo-inositol concentrations detectable by ¹H MRS may develop beyond the acute period.

Language: en

Keywords

adolescent; concussion; magnetic resonance spectroscopy; mild traumatic brain injury; pediatric