Journey to the other side of the brain: asymmetry in patients with chronic mild or moderate traumatic brain injury

David E Ross; John D Seabaugh; Jan M Seabaugh; Claudia Alvarez; Laura Peyton Ellis; Christopher Powell; Christopher Reese; Leah Cooper; Katherine Shepherd; For The Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

doi:10.2217/cnc-2022-0003

Journey to the other side of the brain: asymmetry in patients with chronic mild or moderate traumatic brain injury

Concussion. 2023 Jan 31;8(1):CNC101. doi: 10.2217/cnc-2022-0003. eCollection 2022 Dec.

Authors

David E Ross¹, John D Seabaugh¹, Jan M Seabaugh¹, Claudia Alvarez^{1

2}, Laura Peyton Ellis^{1

2}, Christopher Powell^{1

3}, Christopher Reese^{1

4}, Leah Cooper^{1

5}, Katherine Shepherd^{1

6}, For The Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative^{1

2

3

4

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Virginia Institute of Neuropsychiatry, Midlothian, VA 23114, USA.
² Neuroscience Department, Randolph Macon College, Ashland, VA 23005, USA.
³ Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, VA 23219, USA.
⁴ Neuroscience Department, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Wilmington, NC 28403, USA.
⁵ Neuroscience Department, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.
⁶ Neuroscience Department, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA 22807, USA.

Abstract

Aim: Patients with chronic mild or moderate traumatic brain injury have some regions of brain atrophy (including cerebral white matter) but even more regions of abnormal brain enlargement (including other cerebral regions).

Hypothesis: Ipsilateral injury and atrophy cause the eventual development of contralateral compensatory hypertrophy.

Materials & methods: 50 patients with mild or moderate traumatic brain injury were compared to 80 normal controls (n = 80) with respect to MRI brain volume asymmetry. Asymmetry-based correlations were used to test the primary hypothesis.

Results: The group of patients had multiple regions of abnormal asymmetry.

Conclusion: The correlational analyses supported the conclusion that acute injury to ipsilateral cerebral white matter regions caused atrophy, leading eventually to abnormal enlargement of contralateral regions due to compensatory hypertrophy.

Keywords: MRI; NeuroGage®; NeuroQuant®; asymmetry; traumatic brain injury (TBI); volumetry.