Neuroimaging of the Injured Pediatric Brain: Methods and New Lessons

Overview

Journal Neuroscientist

Publisher Sage Publications

Specialty Neurology

Date 2018 Mar 1

PMID 29488436

Citations 15

Authors

Emily L Dennis

Talin Babikian

Christopher C Giza

Paul M Thompson

Robert F Asarnow

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant public health problem in the United States, especially for children and adolescents. Current epidemiological data estimate over 600,000 patients younger than 20 years are treated for TBI in emergency rooms annually. While many patients experience a full recovery, for others there can be long-lasting cognitive, neurological, psychological, and behavioral disruptions. TBI in youth can disrupt ongoing brain development and create added family stress during a formative period. The neuroimaging methods used to assess brain injury improve each year, providing researchers a more detailed characterization of the injury and recovery process. In this review, we cover current imaging methods used to quantify brain disruption post-injury, including structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), diffusion MRI, functional MRI, resting state fMRI, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), with brief coverage of other methods, including electroencephalography (EEG), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and positron emission tomography (PET). We include studies focusing on pediatric moderate-severe TBI from 2 months post-injury and beyond. While the morbidity of pediatric TBI is considerable, continuing advances in imaging methods have the potential to identify new treatment targets that can lead to significant improvements in outcome.

Citing Articles

Evidence Suggesting Prolonged Neuroinflammation in a Subset of Children after Moderate/Severe TBI: A UCLA RAPBI Study.

McCabe C, Dennis E, Lindsey H, Babikian T, Bickart K, Giza C medRxiv. 2025; .

PMID: 39974138 PMC: 11838928. DOI: 10.1101/2025.01.20.25320782.

Neuroimaging Correlates of Functional Outcome Following Pediatric TBI.

Dennis E, Keleher F, Bartnik-Olson B Adv Neurobiol. 2024; 42:33-84.

PMID: 39432037 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-69832-3_3.

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

Berger L, Holshouser B, Nichols J, Pivonka-Jones J, Ashwal S, Bartnik-Olson B Metabolites. 2023; 13(7).

PMID: 37512485 PMC: 10385309. DOI: 10.3390/metabo13070778.

Brain volume abnormalities and clinical outcomes following paediatric traumatic brain injury.

Bourke N, Demarchi C, De Simoni S, Samra R, Patel M, Kuczynski A Brain. 2022; 145(8):2920-2934.

PMID: 35798350 PMC: 9420021. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awac130.

A Preliminary DTI Tractography Study of Developmental Neuroplasticity 5-15 Years After Early Childhood Traumatic Brain Injury.

Wilde E, Hyseni I, Lindsey H, Faber J, McHenry J, Bigler E Front Neurol. 2022; 12:734055.

PMID: 35002913 PMC: 8732947. DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2021.734055.

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