Cortical Thickness and Diffusion Properties in the Injured Brain: The Influence of Chronic Health Complaints

Introduction: Cortical thickness and diffusion properties can be served as an indicator of aging and other brain changes such as those related to brain injury. It can additionally provide another platform by which we can characterize the injury and its associated symptoms, especially in the chronic condition. Methods: We examined the changes in cortical thickness and diffusion properties in white matter tracts in 51 patients with and without traumatic brain injury (TBI) and/or self-report chronic symptoms. Results: Significant cortical thinning was observed in the frontal lobe and temporal lobe for TBI patients with chronic symptoms, but not for TBI patients without chronic symptoms, compared with control group. Significant reduction in fractional anisotropy occurred on average across left and right major fiber tracts for TBI patients with chronic symptoms. No mean diffusivity changes were found in any individual white matter tract for TBI patients with or without chronic symptoms. Conclusions: Traumatic brain injury patients with chronic symptoms have more significant cortical thinning or degeneration of diffusion properties than the mild to severe TBI patients without chronic symptoms. This finding suggests that symptom reporting should be assessed in line with objective measures in clinical practice.