Blast-Related Brain Injuries During Warfare Lead To Long Term Neurological Changes

Soldiers who experience minor brain trauma during combat undergo long term changes in their brain, according to research presented today at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

The results have several important implications, Red Orbit reported. For one, the findings add to a growing body of research focused on determining the long term effects of head injuries, either serious or mild. Two, the researchers discovered a more effective way to measure brain injury, which is typically difficult to detect and important in helping to distinguish PTSD, a psychological disease, from brain injury, a neurological disease.

Co-authors Thomas Malone and Tyler Roskos of the Saint Louis University School of Medicine compared ten healthy brains to the brains of ten veterans (from Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom) who'd been diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) resulting from some type of war time blast like mortar fire or an IED. Using a form of MRI called DTI, or diffusion tensor imaging, they mapped out significant differences between the controls and the soldiers, according to Red Orbit. Primarily, they found damage impinging water flow between axons in the soldiers' brains.

Because the average time between when the MTBI occurred and the DTI test was just over four years, researchers determined that the results were evidence of long term changes.

"The time since injury is a novel component to our study," Dr. Roskos said. "Most other blast-related MTBI studies examine patients in the acute phase of injury."

Malone and Roskos were less sure of how the changes in the brain affected veterans, though they believed the differences at least contributed to cognitive and behavioral symptoms.

"This long-term impact on the brain may account for ongoing cognitive and behavioral symptoms in some veterans with a history of blast-related MTBI," Roskos said.

The University of Saint Louis Research praised the sensitivity of DTI.

"Mild traumatic brain injury is difficult to identify using standard CT or MRI," Roskos said. "Other methods may have added sensitivity."