White Matter Integrity and Motor Function Disruption Due to Traumatic Brain Injury in Piglets Impacts Motor-Related Brain Fibers

Pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) often induces significant disability in patients, including long-term motor deficits. Early detection of injury severity is key in determining a prognosis and creating appropriate intervention and rehabilitation plans. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) tractography enables three-dimensional reconstruction of specific white matter tracts throughout the brain in order to detect white matter injury based on anisotropic diffusion. This study demonstrated acute reductions in the white matter integrity, as measured by DTI tractography, strongly corresponded with acute motor deficits in a pediatric piglet TBI model. These results provide the foundation for the further development of DTI-based biomarkers to evaluate motor outcomes following TBI. You can read more about these findings by clicking the following link: mdpi.com.