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Conclusions. Although mean diffusivity and fractional anisotropy abnormalities in these patients with TBI were too subtle to be detected with the whole-brain histogram analysis, they are present in brain areas that are frequent sites of DAI. Because diffusion tensor imaging changes are present at both early and late time points following injury, they may represent an early indicator and a prognostic measure of subsequent brain damage. (Inglese, Makani, Johnson, Cohen, Silver, Gonen & Grossman, 2005)In plain English, standard MRI's may miss early warnings of brain damage, that a more specific imaging method could have provided, possibly enabling subsequent damage to be avoided.
Subsequent damage to white brain matter can interfere with the ability to organize work and is associated with OCD tendencies. (Lochner, Fouché, du Plessis, Spottiswoode, Seedat, Fineberg, Chamberlain & Stein, 2012)
References:
Inglese, M., Makani, S., Johnson, G., Cohen, B. A., Silver, J. A., Gonen, O., & Grossman, R. I.
(2005). Diffuse axonal injury in mild traumatic brain injury: a diffusion tensor imaging study.
JNS Journal of Neurosurgery, 103(2), 298-303. doi: 10.3171/jns.2005.103.2.0298
Lochner, C., Fouché, J., du Plessis, S., Spottiswoode, B., Seedat, S., Fineberg, N.,
Chamberlain, S. R., & Stein, D. J. (2012). Evidence for fractional anisotropy and mean
diffusivity white matter abnormalities in the internal capsule and cingulum in patients with
obsessive–compulsive disorder. J Psychiatry Neurosci, 37(3), 193-199.
doi: 10.1503/jpn.110059
