124 MEGAbIT – the role of OPM MEG in assessment and diagnosis In mTBI

Abstract

Can those with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) be differentiated from non-head injured orthopaedic trauma controls by measuring brain wave activity? These are the preliminary data from MEGAbIT, a MRC Confidence in Concept funded study. Clinical Trials reference:NCT03867513Whilst most individuals with mTBI recover, a significant proportion have persistent difficulties. These patients have normal routine scans, and consequently a biomarker to understand the neuropathology underly- ing these symptoms is lacking. We have combined ultrahigh field 7T MRI with magnetoencephalography (MEG), to look for structural and functional abnormalities in acute mTBI. Following a systematic review of the MEG mTBI literature, we established that the most robust finding is increased power in the delta frequency band following mTBI. So far, in our study, 10 of the 13 mTBI participants have shown this abnormality.Comparisons of spectral power between the mTBI cohort and controls in other frequency bands were less sensitive biomarkers of mTBI. Full analysis to be presented will include assessment of whole-brain con- nectivity using amplitude envelope correlation, structural damage using high-resolution susceptibility weighted imaging and structural connectivity using diffusion tensor imaging. Our results are in keeping with publications suggesting that MEG can detect mTBI abnormalities when structural imaging is normal.christopher.allen@nottingham.ac.uk