Citation

Koch KM, Nencka AS, Swearingen B, Bauer AH, Meier T, McCrea M. J. Neurotrauma 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/neu.2020.7322

PMID

33066712

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated the promising capabilities of MRI-based quantitative susceptibility maps (QSM) in producing biomarkers of brain injury. The present study aims to further explore acute QSM changes in athletes after sports concussion and investigate prognostication capabilities of QSM-derived imaging metrics. QSM were derived from neurological MRI data acquired on a cohort (n=78) of concussed male American football athletes within 48 hours of injury. MRI-derived QSM values in subcortical gray and white matter compartments after concussion showed differences relative to a matched uninjured control group (white matter: z = 3.04, p = 0.002, subcortical gray matter: z = -2.07, p = 0.04). Subcortical gray matter QSM MRI measurements also correlated strongly with duration of symptoms (ρ=-0.46, p = 0.002) within a sub-cohort of subjects that had symptom durations for at least 1 week (n=39). The acute QSM MRI metrics showed promising prognostication capabilities, with subcortical gray matter compartment QSM values yielding a mean classification area under the curve (AUC) performance of 0.78 when predicting symptoms of more than two weeks in duration. The results of the study reproduce previous acute post-concussion group QSM findings and provide promising initial prognostication capabilities of acute QSM measurements in a post-concussion setting.

Language: en

Keywords

TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY; MRI; Susceptibility Weighted Imaging