Fascinating New Research on Traumatic Brain Injuries

If you or someone you love suffered a brain injury or head trauma in a motorcycle accident, slip and fall or sports incident, you’re probably very interested in learning about the latest research on head injury treatment.

To that end, this post summarizes and looks the implications of two recent studies on traumatic brain injuries (TBI).

The first study, Distributions of Magnetic Resonance Diffusion and Spectroscopy Measures with Traumatic Brain Injury, comes by way of the University of Miami’s School of Medicine. Authored by Andrew Maudsley, Varan Govind, Bonnie Levin, Gaurav Saigal, Leo Harris and Sulaiman Sheriff, the study demonstrated that measurement techniques — namely, Magnetic Resonance Diffusion (MRD) and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) — can show levels of axonal injury and altered metabolism once a traumatic brain injury has occurred. This study showed that using only MRD or only DTI was an insufficient way to properly analyze the effects of brain injuries.

However, combining both MRD and DTI led to a more complete neuroanalysis. Namely, MRD was most effective at showing the widespread alteration of tissue metabolites, and the DTI complemented this reading by pairing it with measurements that revealed significant differences between patients – something that the MRD was unable to capture. In effect, researchers concluded that there were significant medical benefits to using both the MRD and DTI imaging in tandem.

The second study, The Role of Thalamic Damage in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, came out of NYU’s School of Medicine and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Elan J. Grossman and Matilde Inglese authored the study, which gave researchers reason to believe that the thalamus could be a crucial site for evidence of traumatic brain injury. Experimental human and animal models have also showed that the thalamus region of the brain likely plays a key role in TBI pathology and that studying this region could help doctors predict lasting consequences of traumatic brain injuries.

Simulations and analytical representations of mild head injuries and similar conditions matched the evidence obtained from the experimental human and animal research models. The previous disease model assumptions stating that diffuse axonal injury must be present in white matter had been typically unable to explain the global nature of traumatic brain injuries, but injuries to the thalamus may be able to explain the globalized symptoms when paired with injuries within white matter.

Bottom Line for Traumatic Brain Injuries Sufferers and Their Families

Both of these studies show that there is much progress being made in the fight to understand and manage traumatic brain injuries. However, TBIs continue to be difficult to treat.

If you have been injured in a motorcycle accident or any other accident that caused a brain injury, contact our experienced personal injury law firm for a free consultation to learn how to obtain compensation to pay for medical expenses and other damages.