Biopsychosocial Outcome after Uncomplicated Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the biopsychosocial outcome from uncomplicated mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) within the first 3 weeks post injury. Participants were 48 prospectively enrolled patients from the Emergency Department of Tampere University Hospital, Finland, who sustained an uncomplicated MTBI. At 3 weeks post injury, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of the whole brain was undertaken using a Siemens 3T scanner. Measures of fractional anisotropy (FA) were calculated for 16 regions of interest (ROIs) and measures of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) were calculated for 10 ROIs. Twenty-four healthy control participants also completed DTI of the whole brain for comparison. Participants were administered a brief battery of self-report (e.g., postconcussion symptoms, depression, and fatigue) and neurocognitive measures (e.g., verbal learning and memory). There were no significant differences between the uncomplicated MTBI and healthy control group on any measures of learning and memory. Compared to the control group, the uncomplicated MTBI group reported a greater number of postconcussion symptoms and fatigue, but not depression. When considering all DTI ROIs simultaneously, the MTBI group had a significantly larger number of low DTI measures (FA values) compared to the healthy controls. MTBI patients with multifocal white matter changes did not show evidence of worse symptoms, cognitive impairment, or slower return to work compared to MTBI patients with broadly normal white matter.