HOPE or MORE SMOKE? The U.S. government has spent millions of dollars trying to develop objective testing methods to diagnose mild TBI. As part of a $5.3 million grant, researchers at St. Louis University are working on a study of brain scans and cognitive testing in dozens of veterans with blast-induced mild TBI and civilians with mild TBI, as well as healthy controls for comparison. So far researchers have found that the civilians tended to recover a few weeks after suffering a concussion. Veterans described more persistent symptoms, such as memory loss, ability to concentrate and regulate emotions. Researchers believe the symptoms may be backed up on screen with so-called diffusion tensor imaging, a function on a standard MRI machine that hones in on neural pathways in brain white matter. Researchers say the imaging could pick up on minuscule disruptions in nerve track fibers that might indicate mild-TBI in veterans, even several years after suffering a blast. “The diffusor tensor imaging has the potential to help us understand why injured members of the military are reporting these issues,” neuropsychologist P. Tyler Roskos wrote in a recent statement about a small preliminary study of the material. “It also may help service members feel justified that the ‘invisible injuries’ they experience are real.” Researchers cautioned that final results could be inconclusive or different than what they have presently. Complicating matters, many of the 75 veterans who participated in the study have PTSD and depression. Some wrestle with substance abuse. Those factors and others could contribute to their symptoms. Though researchers say they are a long way off, they hope that more sensitive brain scans can show how blasts affect veterans long term. Veterans have a tougher puzzle to put together compared to civilians because vets often sustain multiple head injuries as well as the psychological trauma of warfare itself. Washington University School of Medicine has caught attention with its TBI research, including the use of diffusion tensor imaging technology. David Brody, an associate professor of neurology there, said researchers just closed enrollment on a study of 178 military personnel. “The goal was to use advanced MRI scans to differentially assess both blast and non-blast related concussive military TBI,” Brody wrote in an email. He said another Washington University study also recently closed involving the brain scans of injured service members at Camp Leatherneck, a Marine base in Afghanistan’s volatile Helmand Province, and in nearby Kandahar. ~DJ~
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 11:43:46 +0000
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