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
. 2023 Apr 26:14:1045695.
doi: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1045695. eCollection 2023.

Dilation of the superior sagittal sinus detected in rat model of mild traumatic brain injury using 1 T magnetic resonance imaging

Jennie M Burns  1 , Benjamin T Kalinosky  1 , Mark A Sloan  1 , Cesario Z Cerna  1 , David A Fines  1 , Christopher M Valdez  2 , William B Voorhees  2
Affiliations

Dilation of the superior sagittal sinus detected in rat model of mild traumatic brain injury using 1 T magnetic resonance imaging

Jennie M Burns et al. Front Neurol. .

Abstract

Introduction: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a common injury that can lead to temporary and, in some cases, life-long disability. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is widely used to diagnose and study brain injuries and diseases, yet mTBI remains notoriously difficult to detect in structural MRI. mTBI is thought to be caused by microstructural or physiological changes in the function of the brain that cannot be adequately captured in structural imaging of the gray and white matter. However, structural MRIs may be useful in detecting significant changes in the cerebral vascular system (e.g., the blood-brain barrier (BBB), major blood vessels, and sinuses) and the ventricular system, and these changes may even be detectable in images taken by low magnetic field strength MRI scanners (<1.5T).

Methods: In this study, we induced a model of mTBI in the anesthetized rat animal model using a commonly used linear acceleration drop-weight technique. Using a 1T MRI scanner, the brain of the rat was imaged, without and with contrast, before and after mTBI on post-injury days 1, 2, 7, and 14 (i.e., P1, P2, P7, and P14).

Results: Voxel-based analyses of MRIs showed time-dependent, statistically significant T2-weighted signal hypointensities in the superior sagittal sinus (SSS) and hyperintensities of the gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted signal in the superior subarachnoid space (SA) and blood vessels near the dorsal third ventricle. These results showed a widening, or vasodilation, of the SSS on P1 and of the SA on P1-2 on the dorsal surface of the cortex near the site of the drop-weight impact. The results also showed vasodilation of vasculature near the dorsal third ventricle and basal forebrain on P1-7.

Discussion: Vasodilation of the SSS and SA near the site of impact could be explained by the direct mechanical injury resulting in local changes in tissue function, oxygenation, inflammation, and blood flow dynamics. Our results agreed with literature and show that the 1T MRI scanner performs at a level comparable to higher field strength scanners for this type of research.

Keywords: MRI; TBI; brain; low field; rat; vasculature; vasodilation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

JB, BK, MS, CC, and DF were employed by General Dynamics Information Technology. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow-chart of the MR image processing pipeline for region- and voxel-based comparisons.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Voxel-based morphometry statistical comparisons between baseline and post-injury images grouped by day and axial scan, showing only the slices with significantly different voxel clusters for each scan (A-D). The grayscale brain MRI underlays shown are the average signals of the images grouped by day.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Voxel-based morphometry statistical comparisons between baseline and post-injury images grouped by day and sagittal scan, showing only the slices with significantly different voxel clusters for each scan (A,B). The grayscale brain MRI underlays shown are the average signals of the images grouped by day.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Diameter of the SSS at two points (rostral and caudal) measured in a mid-sagittal slice of the T1W GRE + Gd difference images grouped by day (mean ± SD). At the rostral point, P1 was greater than B and P2–14 (where * indicates p < 0.05).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2021). Surveillance report of traumatic brain injury-related hospitalizations and deaths by age group, sex, and mechanism of injury--United States, 2016 and 2017. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
    1. Chakraborty N, Hammamieh R, Gautam A, Miller SA, Condlin ML, Jett M, et al. . TBI weight-drop model with variable impact heights differentially perturbs hippocampus-cerebellum specific transcriptomic profile. Exp Neurol. (2021) 335:113516. doi: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2020.113516, PMID: - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cassidy JD, Carroll LJ, Peloso PM, Borg J, von Holst H, Holm L, et al. . Incidence, risk factors and prevention of mild traumatic brain injury: results of the WHO collaborating Centre task force on mild traumatic brain injury. J Rehabil Med. (2004) 36:28–60. doi: 10.1080/16501960410023732, PMID: - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hou J, Nelson R, Wilkie Z, Mustafa G, Tsuda S, Thompson FJ, et al. . Mild and mild-to-moderate traumatic brain injury-induced significant progressive and enduring multiple comorbidities. J Neurotrauma. (2017) 34:2456–66. doi: 10.1089/neu.2016.4851, PMID: - DOI - PubMed
    1. McInnes K, Friesen CL, MacKenzie DE, Westwood DA, Boe SG. Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and chronic cognitive impairment: a scoping review. PLoS One. (2017) 12:e0174847. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0174847, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed