White Matter Metabolite Ratios Predict Cognitive Outcome in Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury

The prognostic ability of global white matter and gray metabolite ratios following pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) their relationship to 12-month neuropsychological assessments intelligence quotient (IQ), attention, memory is presented. Three-dimensional proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) in subjects with complicated mild (cMild), moderate, severe TBI was acquired acutely (6–18 days) 12 months post-injury compared age-matched typically developing adolescents. A linear regression model, co-registering MRSI maps 3D high-resolution images, used identify longitudinal ratio changes. Acutely, NAA/Cr, NAA/Cho were significantly lower groups controls. Gray reduced only the group. At months, all normalized control levels each groups. Acute NAA correlated IQ, memory. These findings suggest that whole reflect changes neuronal metabolism TBI, which can be predict outcomes subjects.