Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Jul;85(1):155-159.
doi: 10.1097/TA.0000000000001852.

Prognosis of diffuse axonal injury with traumatic brain injury

Stephen S Humble  1 , Laura D Wilson, Li Wang, Drew A Long, Miya A Smith, Jonathan C Siktberg, Mina F Mirhoseini, Aashim Bhatia, Sumit Pruthi, Matthew A Day, Susanne Muehlschlegel, Mayur B Patel
Affiliations

Prognosis of diffuse axonal injury with traumatic brain injury

Stephen S Humble et al. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2018 Jul.

Abstract

Background: Determine the prognostic impact of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-defined diffuse axonal injury (DAI) after traumatic brain injury (TBI) on functional outcomes, quality of life, and 3-year mortality.

Methods: This retrospective single center cohort included adult trauma patients (age > 17 years) admitted from 2006 to 2012 with TBI. Inclusion criteria were positive head computed tomography with brain MRI within 2 weeks of admission. Exclusion criteria included penetrating TBI or prior neurologic condition. Separate ordinal logistic models assessed DAI's prognostic value for the following scores: (1) hospital-discharge Functional Independence Measure, (2) long-term Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended, and (3) long-term Quality of Life after Brain Injury-Overall Scale. Cox proportional hazards modeling assessed DAI's prognostic value for 3-year survival. Covariates included age, sex, race, insurance status, Injury Severity Score, admission Glasgow Coma Scale Score, Marshall Head computed tomography Class, clinical DAI on MRI (Y/N), research-level anatomic DAI Grades I-III (I, cortical; II, corpus callosum; III, brainstem), ventilator days, time to follow commands, and time to long-term follow-up (for logistic models).

Results: Eligibility criteria was met by 311 patients, who had a median age of 40 years (interquartile range [IQR], 23-57 years), Injury Severity Score of 29 (IQR, 22-38), intensive care unit stay of 6 days (IQR, 2-11 days), and follow-up of 5 years (IQR, 3-6 years). Clinical DAI was present on 47% of MRIs. Among 300 readable MRIs, 56% of MRIs had anatomic DAI (25% Grade I, 18% Grade II, 13% Grade III). On regression, only clinical (not anatomic) DAI was predictive of a lower Functional Independence Measure score (odds ratio, 2.5; 95% confidence interval, 1.28-4.76], p = 0.007). Neither clinical nor anatomic DAI were related to survival, Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended, or Quality of Life after Brain Injury-Overall Scale scores.

Conclusion: In this longitudinal cohort, clinical evidence of DAI on MRI may only be useful for predicting short-term in-hospital functional outcome. Given no association of DAI and long-term TBI outcomes, providers should be cautious in attributing DAI to future neurologic function, quality of life, and/or survival.

Level of evidence: Epidemiological, level III; Therapeutic, level IV.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Meythaler JM, Peduzzi JD, Eleftheriou E, Novack TA. Current concepts: diffuse axonal injury-associated traumatic brain injury. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2001;82(10):1461–71. - PubMed
    1. Smith DH, Meaney DF, Shull WH. Diffuse axonal injury in head trauma. J Head Trauma Rehabil. 2003;18(4):307–16. - PubMed
    1. Marquez de la Plata C, Ardelean A, Koovakkattu D, Srinivasan P, Miller A, Phuong V, Harper C, Moore C, Whittemore A, Madden C, et al. Magnetic resonance imaging of diffuse axonal injury: quantitative assessment of white matter lesion volume. J Neurotrauma. 2007;24(4):591–8. - PubMed
    1. Matsukawa H, Shinoda M, Fujii M, Takahashi O, Yamamoto D, Murakata A, Ishikawa R. Genu of corpus callosum as a prognostic factor in diffuse axonal injury. J Neurosurg. 2011;115(5):1019–24. - PubMed
    1. Chelly H, Chaari A, Daoud E, Dammak H, Medhioub F, Mnif J, Hamida CB, Bahloul M, Bouaziz M. Diffuse axonal injury in patients with head injuries: an epidemiologic and prognosis study of 124 cases. J Trauma. 2011;71(4):838–46. - PubMed

Publication types