Abstract #0899

Longitudinal 1H MRS & DTI in Rodent Fluid Percussion Brain Injury Model to Study Cerebral Metabolism, Brain Morphology & Cognitive Deficits

N. Agarwal¹, L. D'Silva¹, E. M. Kan², S. K. Verma¹, S. Seramani¹, K. C. Ng², E. A. Ling³, J. Lu², S. Sendhil Velan¹

¹Laboratory of Molecular Imaging, Singapore Bioimaging Consortium, Singapore, Singapore; ²Combat Care Laboratory, Defence Medical and Environmental Research Institute, DSO National Lab, Singapore, Singapore; ³Department of Anatomy, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) can cause lasting neuropsychological damage and impair the day-to-day functionality for survivors. In this study, we have investigated the changes in brain morphology, cognitive function and metabolism affected by fluid percussion injury in rodent models with Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS). The current study demonstrates good correlation in results obtained by DTI and 1H MRS to track white matter changes in the traumatic brain injury model in rodents. This suggests that regional cerebral changes in ADC and NAA/Cr values may serve as a possible diagnostic marker for cognitive performance after TBI.