RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
A1 Ruzinak, Robert
A1 Bittsansky, Michal
A1 Martinikova, Martina
A1 Nosal, Vladimir
A1 Kantorova, Ema
A1 Ballova, Jana
A1 Turcanova Koprusakova, Monika
A1 Hnilicova, Petra
A1 Grendar, Marian
A1 Dusenka, Robert
A1 Kolarovszki, Branislav
A1 Zelenak, Kamil
A1 Kurca, Egon
A1 Sivak, Stefan
T1 Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy changes in the brainstem in patients after mild traumatic brain injury with loss of consciousness
JF Biomedical papers
YR 2022
VO 166
IS 1
SP 84
OP 90
DO 10.5507/bp.2021.029
UL https://biomed.papers.upol.cz/artkey/bio-202201-0012.php
AB Introduction. Loss of consciousness (LOC) is used as a diagnostic feature of mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI). However, only 10% of concussions result in LOC. There are only a limited number of in-vivo studies dealing with unconsciousness and structural and functional integrity of the brainstem in patients with MTBI. The aim of our pilot study was to assess the sensitivity of proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (<sup>1</sup>H-MRS) to detect metabolic changes in the brainstem in patients after MTBI with unconscioussness. Methods. Twenty-four patients (12 with LOC, and 12 without LOC) within 3 days of MTBI and 19 healthy controls were examined. All subjects underwent single-voxel <sup>1</sup>H-MRS examination of the upper brainstem. Spectra were evaluated using LCModel software. Ratios of total N-acetylaspartate (tNAA), total choline-containing compounds (tCho) and glutamate plus glutamine (Glx) to total creatine (tCre) were used for calculations. Results. We found a significant decrease in tNAA/tCre and tCho/tCre ratios in the patient group with LOC when compared with the control group of healthy volunteers (P=0.002 and P=0.041, respectively), and a significant decrease in the tNAA/tCre ratio in the LOC group when compared with patients without LOC (P=0.04). Other metabolite ratios in the brainstem did not show any significant group differences. Conclusion. Our findings indicate that decrease of tNAA/tCre ratio in the upper brainstem using single-voxel <sup>1</sup>H-MRS may provide a potential biomarker for MTBI associated with LOC.