The distribution and extent of traumatic lesions were evaluated with MRI in 31 patients with diffuse axonal injuries(DAI). Authors also analyzed patients with diffuse axonal injury, clinically. The patients with DAI showed statistically significant lower incidence of lucid interval, fracture of the skull and intracranial hematoma. Combined injuries, intracrnial hematomas and distribution of lesions were proved to be poor prognostic factors of DAI. Diffuse axonal injury is most commonly involved in the white matter of the frontal and temporal lobes and the splenium of the corpus callosum. Patients with lesions in brainstem and cerebellum revealed worst prognosis. In our studies, the sensitivities of the imaging techniques for diffuse axonal injuries were 7.3% with CT scan, 75.6% with T1WI, and with 97.6% in T2WI of MRI, respectively. The authors concluded that MRI has clear advantages over CT in evaluating diffuse axonal injuries.
Axons ; Brain Stem ; Cerebellum ; Corpus Callosum ; Diffuse Axonal Injury* ; Hematoma ; Humans ; Incidence ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging* ; Prognosis ; Skull ; Temporal Lobe ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed