Brain metabolism and temperature assessment in traumatic brain injury subjects using 3D Echo-planar Spectroscopic Imaging

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in a broad spectrum of symptoms and disabilities and has a high rate of mortality and morbidity. TBI is associated with elevated brain temperature due to inflammation. TBI has heterogeneous consequences of pathophysiology, changed intracranial dynamics and cerebral metabolism. In some cases there is an increase in ICP and cerebral perfusion which makes the management of the injury difficult . Therapeutic hypothermia is recommended as one of the acute management techniques as it increases neuroprotection, decreases cerebral metabolism and ICP. To induce hypothermia and monitor the brain temperature a noninvasive and accurate assessment of cerebral temperature is essential. MR based temperature measurement based on the water resonance frequency, relaxation times (T1, T2), spectroscopy, proton density, diffusion etc. have been widely used. Echo-planar spectroscopic imaging (EPSI) method has the advantage of simultaneous acquisition of water and spectrum in a single TR, by which we can acquire the whole brain spectrum in a short time . In this study we have explored changes in brain temperature due to cerebral metabolic changes in control, mild and moderate TBI subjects.