Trauma Commons^™

Exploring 5-Minute Heart Rate Variability In Spinal Cord Injury During Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation, Argyrios Stampas, Colton Malesovas, Michael Burke, Sahira Farooq, Mani Singh, Radha Korupolu, Sheng Li

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

To explore the use of 5-minute heart rate variability (HRV) during inpatient rehabilitation in the acute phase of traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI). Longitudinal observational study. Acute inpatient rehabilitation (AIR). 10 patients with acute traumatic SCI. 5-minute HRV supine recordings twice daily on three different days per patient. HRV values were evaluated (1) within a single day (Early versus Late); (2) across the inpatient admission (initial, mid, and discharge); (3) by SCI phenotypes and by clinical outcomes (ex. pressure injuries (PI)). Patients had an average age of 38 years, 80% male, and 40% with tetraplegia. There were no HRV differences …

Monoclonal Antibody For The Prevention Of Respiratory Syncytial Virus In Infants And Children: A Systematic Review And Network Meta-Analysis, Mingyao Sun, Honghao Lai, Feiyang Na, Sheng Li, Xia Qiu, Jinhui Tian, Zhigang Zhang, Long Ge

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

IMPORTANCE: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of acute lower respiratory infection in children younger than 5 years; effective prevention strategies are urgently needed.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy and safety of monoclonal antibodies for the prevention of RSV infection in infants and children.

DATA SOURCES: In this systematic review and network meta-analysis, PubMed, Embase, CENTRAL, and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched from database inception to March 2022.

STUDY SELECTION: Randomized clinical trials that enrolled infants at high risk of RSV infection to receive a monoclonal antibody or placebo were included. Keywords and extensive vocabulary related to monoclonal antibodies, RSV, …

Evaluating The Impact Of Using A Wound-Specific Oral Nutritional Supplement To Support Wound Healing In A Rehabilitation Setting, Rya K Clark, Argyrios Stampas, Kirk W Kerr, Jeffrey L Nelson, Suela Sulo, Luis Leon-Novelo, Esther Ngan, Dehuti Pandya

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Chronic wounds adversely affect patient quality of life, increase the risk of mortality, and impose high costs on healthcare systems. Since protein-energy malnutrition or specific nutrient deficiencies can delay wound healing, nutritionally focused care is a key strategy to help prevent or treat the occurrence of non-healing wounds. The objective of our study of inpatients in a rehabilitation hospital was to quantify the effect of daily wound-specific oral nutritional supplementation (WS-ONS) on healing chronic wounds. Using electronic medical records, we conducted a retrospective analysis of patients with chronic wounds. We identified records for (a) a treatment group who received standard …

Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury In The Middle East And North Africa Region: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis To Assess Characteristics, Mechanisms, And Risk Factors, Samar Al-Hajj, Sarah H Farran, Batoul Dekmak, Layal Hneiny, Hussein Abou Abbas, Aya Hassoun, Nadine Youness, Sarah Ghalayini, Nour Abou Khalil, Fiona Lecky, Shima Shahjouieh, Layal Ghamlouche, Zainab Nasrallah, Firas Kobeissy

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Pediatric traumatic brain injury (pTBI) represents a major cause of child injuries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This review aims to assess pTBIs in the MENA region and reports their clinical severity and outcomes. A search was conducted using major electronic databases, including Medline/Ovid, PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and SCOPUS. Abstracts were screened independently and in duplicate to detect original research. The objective and study findings for each article were recorded, along with the mechanism of pTBI, patient age and sex, injury assessment tool(s) used, and outcome. A total of 1345 articles were retrieved, of …

Unsheltered Homeless And Unstably Housed Adults Have Higher Levels Of Stress And More Health Risk Factors Than Sheltered Homeless Adults, Chaelin K Ra, Emily T Hébert, Adam Alexander, Darla E Kendzor, Robert Suchting, Michael S Businelle

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

In the United States, approximately 580,000 individuals were homeless on a single night in 2020. Homelessness can be categorized into three subgroups: sheltered homeless, unsheltered homeless, and unstably housed. Few studies have examined the relations between homelessness subtypes, shelter service utilization, levels of stress experienced, and health risk factors. This study aimed to empirically examine whether shelter status the previous night was related to current stress, recent utilization of shelter-based mental health services, and current health risk factors. Data were collected at multiple homeless shelters in 2016 in the Oklahoma City area (N=575). All participants completed assessments of demographic characteristics, …

Interpersonal Violence Against Women With Spinal Cord Injury: Adding Insult To Injury, Susan Robinson-Whelen, Rosemary B Hughes, Kimberley Aguillard, Diana Gonzalez, Heather B Taylor

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Mounting empirical evidence suggests that, compared to women without disabilities, women with disabilities are more likely to experience interpersonal violence (IPV). However, there is extremely limited research attention on IPV against women with spinal cord injury (SCI), a particularly understudied and underserved population.

OBJECTIVES: To conduct the first known examination of lifetime IPV experience in women with SCI, to explore demographic and disability-related correlates of IPV, and to examine the health impacts of IPV.

METHODS: The sample included 175 women with traumatic SCI from across the United States who enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of an online psychological …

The Insulin And Igf Signaling Pathway Sustains Breast Cancer Stem Cells By Irs2/Pi3k-Mediated Regulation Of Myc, Manoj Sivan, Stefano Negrini, Carlotte Kiekens, Fary Khan, Gerard E Francisco, Francesca Gimigliano

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Of One Year Outcomes Between Standardized Locomotor Training And Usual Care After Motor Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury: Community Participation, Quality Of Life And Re-Hospitalization, Candace Tefertiller, Meghan Rozwod, Sandra Wojciehowski, Mitch Sevigny, Susan Charlifue, Jessica M Ketchum, Jeffrey Berliner, Heather B Taylor, Andrea L Behrman, Susan Harkema, Gail Forrest, Mary Schmidt Read, Michelle Basso

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

CONTEXT/OBJECTIVE: Spinal cord injury (SCI) often results in a significant loss of mobility and independence coinciding with reports of decreased quality of life (QOL), community participation, and medical complications often requiring re-hospitalization. Locomotor training (LT), the repetition of stepping-like patterning has shown beneficial effects for improving walking ability after motor incomplete SCI, but the potential impact of LT on psychosocial outcomes has not been well-established. The purpose of this study was to evaluate one year QOL, community participation and re-hospitalization outcomes between individuals who participated in a standardized LT program and those who received usual care (UC).

DESIGN/SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: A retrospective …

Novel Psychiatric Disorder 6 Months After Traumatic Brain Injury In Children And Adolescents, Jeffrey E Max, Imogen Drake, Florin Vaida, John R Hesselink, Linda Ewing-Cobbs, Russell J Schachar, Sandra B Chapman, Erin D Bigler, Elisabeth A Wilde, Ann E Saunders, Tony T Yang, Olga Tymofiyeva, Harvey S Levin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the factors predictive of novel psychiatric disorders in the interval 0-6 months following traumatic brain injury (TBI).

METHODS: Children ages 5-14 years consecutively hospitalized for mild to severe TBI at five hospitals were recruited. Participants were evaluated at baseline (soon after injury) for pre-injury characteristics including psychiatric disorders, socioeconomic status (SES), psychosocial adversity, family function, family psychiatric history, and adaptive function. In addition to the psychosocial variables, injury severity and lesion location detected with acquisition of a research MRI were measured to develop a biopsychosocial predictive model for development of novel psychiatric disorders. Psychiatric outcome, including occurrence …

Subcortical Functional Connectivity And Its Association With Walking Performance Following Deployment Related Mild Tbi, Mary R Newsome, Sarah L Martindale, Nicholas Davenport, Emily L Dennis, Marlene Diaz, Carrie Esopenko, Cooper Hodges, George R Jackson, Qisheng Liu, Kimbra Kenney, Andrew R Mayer, Jared A Rowland, Randall S Scheibel, Joel L Steinberg, Brian A Taylor, David F Tate, J Kent Werner, William C Walker, Elisabeth A Wilde

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

INTRODUCTION: The relation between traumatic brain injury (TBI), its acute and chronic symptoms, and the potential for remote neurodegenerative disease is a priority for military research. Structural and functional connectivity (FC) of the basal ganglia, involved in motor tasks such as walking, are altered in some samples of Service Members and Veterans with TBI, but any behavioral implications are unclear and could further depend on the context in which the TBI occurred.

METHODS: In this study, FC from caudate and pallidum seeds was measured in Service Members and Veterans with a history of mild TBI that occurred during combat deployment, …

Specialized Intensive Inpatient Rehabilitation Is Crucial And Time-Sensitive For Functional Recovery From Disorders Of Consciousness, Bei Zhang, Katherine O'Brien, Jean Woo, Bradley Chi, Colton Reeh, Sheng Li, Sunil Kothari

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Disorders of consciousness (DoCs) after severe brain injury are considered to be conditions with dire prognosis. Despite the accumulating evidence, inpatient rehabilitation is often denied by payers referring to the Medicare/Medicaid criteria, under the assumption that such patients will not "

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to report on the effectiveness and efficiency of a specialized inpatient DoC rehabilitation program based on measurable clinical parameters.

METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted. The cohort comprised 137 patients with DoC admitted to a specialized acute inpatient rehabilitation program between January 2014 and October 2018. Patients were categorized as having been admitted …

Cerebral Microdialysis And Glucopenia In Traumatic Brain Injury: A Review, Himanshu Sharma, John P Mcginnis, Katherine E Kabotyanski, Shankar P Gopinath, Jerry C Goodman, Claudia Robertson, Jovany Cruz Navarro

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Traditionally, intracranial pressure (ICP) and partial brain tissue oxygenation (PbtO2) have been the primary invasive intracranial measurements used to guide management in patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). After injury however, the brain develops an increased metabolic demand which may require an increment in the oxidative metabolism of glucose. Simultaneously, metabolic, and electrical dysfunction can lead to an inability to meet these demands, even in the absence of ischemia or increased intracranial pressure. Cerebral microdialysis provides the ability to accurately measure local concentrations of various solutes including lactate, pyruvate, glycerol and glucose. Experimental and clinical data demonstrate that such …

White Matter Correlates Of Domain-Specific Working Memory, Autumn Horne, Junhua Ding, Tatiana T Schnur, Randi C Martin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Prior evidence suggests domain-specific working memory (WM) buffers for maintaining phonological (i.e., speech sound) and semantic (i.e., meaning) information. The phonological WM buffer's proposed location is in the left supramarginal gyrus (SMG), whereas semantic WM has been related to the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), the middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and the angular gyrus (AG). However, less is known about the white matter correlates of phonological and semantic WM. We tested 45 individuals with left hemisphere brain damage on single word processing, phonological WM, and semantic WM tasks and obtained T1 and diffusion weighted neuroimaging. Virtual dissections were performed for …

Phenol Neurolysis In People With Spinal Cord Injury: A Descriptive Study, Radha Korupolu, Aila Malik, Erin Pemberton, Argyrios Stampas, Sheng Li

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive study.

OBJECTIVES: The study's main objective was to describe the common targets of phenol neurolysis and review the safety and efficacy of the dose used for this spasticity management procedure in people with spinal cord injury (SCI).

SETTING: An acute rehabilitation hospital.

METHODS: Data from people with SCI who underwent phenol neurolysis procedures for spasticity management between April 2017 and August 2018 were included in this study. We collected demographics and phenol neurolysis procedure-related information.

RESULTS: A total of 66 people with SCI and spasticity underwent phenol neurolysis of 303 nerves over 102 encounters. During these encounters, …

Assessing Naming Errors Using An Automated Machine Learning Approach, Tatiana T Schnur, Chia-Ming Lei

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: After left hemisphere stroke, 20%-50% of people experience language deficits, including difficulties in naming. Naming errors that are semantically related to the intended target (e.g., producing "violin" for picture HARP) indicate a potential impairment in accessing knowledge of word forms and their meanings. Understanding the cause of naming impairments is crucial to better modeling of language production as well as for tailoring individualized rehabilitation. However, evaluation of naming errors is typically by subjective and laborious dichotomous classification. As a result, these evaluations do not capture the degree of semantic similarity and are susceptible to lower interrater reliability because of …

Anterior Connectivity Critical For Recovery Of Connected Speech After Stroke, Junhua Ding, Tatiana T Schnur

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Connected speech recovers to different degrees across people after left hemisphere stroke, but white matter predictors of differential recovery from the acute stage of stroke are unknown. We assessed changes in lexical-syntactic aspects of connected speech in a longitudinal analysis of 40 individuals (18 females) from the acute stage of left hemisphere stroke (within an average of 4 days post-stroke) to subacute (within 2 months) and chronic stages (early: 6 months, late: 1 year) while measuring the extent of acute lesions on white matter tracts to identify tracts predictive of recovery. We found that acute damage to the frontal aslant …

Aging After Stroke: How To Define Post-Stroke Sarcopenia And What Are Its Risk Factors?, Sheng Li, Javier Gonzalez-Buonomo, Jaskiran Ghuman, Xinran Huang, Aila Malik, Nuray Yozbatiran, Elaine Magat, Gerard E Francisco, Hulin Wu, Walter R Frontera

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Sarcopenia, generally described as "aging-related loss of skeletal muscle mass and function", can occur secondary to a systemic disease.

AIM: This project aimed to study the prevalence of sarcopenia in chronic ambulatory stroke survivors and its associated risk factors using the two most recent diagnostic criteria.

DESIGN: A cross-sectional observational study.

SETTING: A scientific laboratory.

POPULATION: Chronic stroke.

METHODS: Twenty-eight ambulatory chronic stroke survivors (12 females; mean age=57.8±11.8 years; time after stroke=76±45 months), hand-grip strength, gait speed, and appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM) were measured to define sarcopenia. Risk factors, including motor impairment and spasticity, were identified using regression …

Aging After Stroke: How To Define Post-Stroke Sarcopenia And What Are Its Risk Factors?, Sheng Li, Javier Gonzalez-Buonomo, Jaskiran Ghuman, Xinran Huang, Aila Malik, Nuray Yozbatiran, Elaine Magat, Gerard E Francisco, Hulin Wu, Walter R Frontera

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Sarcopenia, generally described as "aging-related loss of skeletal muscle mass and function", can occur secondary to a systemic disease.

AIM: This project aimed to study the prevalence of sarcopenia in chronic ambulatory stroke survivors and its associated risk factors using the two most recent diagnostic criteria.

DESIGN: A cross-sectional observational study.

SETTING: A scientific laboratory.

POPULATION: Chronic stroke.

METHODS: Twenty-eight ambulatory chronic stroke survivors (12 females; mean age=57.8±11.8 years; time after stroke=76±45 months), hand-grip strength, gait speed, and appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM) were measured to define sarcopenia. Risk factors, including motor impairment and spasticity, were identified using regression …

Fighting For Recovery On Multiple Fronts: The Past, Present, And Future Of Clinical Trials For Spinal Cord Injury, Valerie A Dietz, Nolan Roberts, Katelyn Knox, Sherilynne Moore, Michael Pitonak, Chris Barr, Jesus Centeno, Scott Leininger, Kent C New, Peter Nowell, Matthew Rodreick, Cedric G Geoffroy, Argyrios Stampas, Jennifer N Dulin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Through many decades of preclinical research, great progress has been achieved in understanding the complex nature of spinal cord injury (SCI). Preclinical research efforts have guided and shaped clinical trials, which are growing in number by the year. Currently, 1,149 clinical trials focused on improving outcomes after SCI are registered in the U.S. National Library of Medicine at ClinicalTrials.gov. We conducted a systematic analysis of these SCI clinical trials, using publicly accessible data downloaded from ClinicalTrials.gov. After extracting all available data for these trials, we categorized each trial according to the types of interventions being tested and the types of …

Treating Phantom Limb Pain: Cryoablation Of The Posterior Tibial Nerve, Matthew Fiala, Abana Azariah, Jean Woo, Ahmed Kamel Abdel Aal, Alexa Levey

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Phantom limb pain (PLP) is a complex pathophysiologic process involving both the central and peripheral nervous system for which there is no definitive treatment. The number of individuals living with amputated limbs is predicted to increase to 3.5 million by 2050, and up to 80% of these patients will have PLP. In this case report, we will demonstrate successful reduction of PLP in a patient with bilateral phantom toe pain utilizing nerve blockade and subsequent cryoablation of the posterior tibial nerves.

Contributions Of Semantic And Phonological Working Memory To Narrative Language Independent Of Single Word Production: Evidence From Acute Stroke, Rachel Zahn, Tatiana T Schnur, Randi C Martin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Neuropsychological case studies have provided evidence that individuals with semantic, but not phonological, working memory (WM) deficits have difficulty producing phrases containing several content words. These findings supported the claim of a phrasal scope of planning at the grammatical formulation stage of production, where semantic WM supports the maintenance of lexical-semantic representations as they are inserted into slots in phrasal constituents. Recent narrative production results for individuals at the acute stage of stroke supported the role for semantic WM in phrasal elaboration while suggesting a role for phonological WM at a subsequent phonological encoding stage in supporting fluent, rapid speech. …

Effective Therapies And Nursing Approaches: Improving Cognition In Older Adult Stroke Patients, Selyna Baltazar

Nursing | Senior Theses

Background

Ischemic stroke occurs in thousands of older adults throughout the year. Due to the lack of oxygen entering the brain, many patients experience a decline in cognitive function due to ischemic stroke. Cognition is the ability to understand, learn, and remember information which is needed for completing daily tasks. Modern technology has allowed for patients to survive ischemic strokes but has yet to provide proper screening tools and methods for stroke-related cognitive impairment.

Objective

To investigate the best practices for identifying, treating, and caring for patients with a cognitive injury related to a stroke. A review of the research …

Multi-Center, Single-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Functional Electrical Stimulation Therapy To Conventional Therapy In Incomplete Tetraplegia, Kim D Anderson, Radha Korupolu, Kristin E Musselman, Jacqueline Pierce, James R Wilson, Nuray Yozbatiran, Naaz Desai, Milos R Popovic, Lehana Thabane

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Loss of upper extremity function after tetraplegia results in significant disability. Emerging evidence from pilot studies suggests that functional electrical stimulation (FES) therapy may enhance recovery of upper extremity function after tetraplegia. The aim of this trial was to determine the effectiveness of FES therapy delivered by the Myndmove stimulator in people with tetraplegia.

METHODS: A multi-center

RESULTS: Between June 2019 to August 2021, 51 participants were randomized to FES (

CONCLUSION: Forty sessions of FES therapy delivered by the MyndMove stimulator are as effective as conventional therapy in producing meaningful functional improvements that persist after therapy is completed. …

Factors Associated With Ventilator Weaning Success And Failure In People With Spinal Cord Injury In An Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation Setting: A Retrospective Study, Radha Korupolu, Hannah Uhlig-Reche, Emmanuel Chigozie Achilike, Colton Reeh, Claudia Pedroza, Argyrios Stampas

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate baseline characteristics, describe pulmonary outcomes, and identify weaning predictors for people with acute traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) who are dependent on mechanical ventilation at admission to acute inpatient rehabilitation (AIR).

METHODS: The retrospective study was conducted at an AIR facility in the United States. It included 91 adults with acute traumatic SCI from 2015 to 2019 who were dependent on mechanical ventilation.

RESULTS: People who successfully weaned (85%) had fewer days from time of SCI to AIR admission (22 vs. 30,

CONCLUSION: In this retrospective study, there was an increased risk of pneumonia in people with …

A Precision Medicine Agenda In Traumatic Brain Injury, Jovany Cruz Navarro, Lucido L Ponce Mejia, Claudia Robertson

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Traumatic brain injury remains a leading cause of death and disability across the globe. Substantial uncertainty in outcome prediction continues to be the rule notwithstanding the existing prediction models. Additionally, despite very promising preclinical data, randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of neuroprotective strategies in moderate and severe TBI have failed to demonstrate significant treatment effects. Better predictive models are needed, as the existing validated ones are more useful in prognosticating poor outcome and do not include biomarkers, genomics, proteonomics, metabolomics, etc. Invasive neuromonitoring long believed to be a "game changer" in the care of TBI patients have shown mixed results, and …

A Literature Review Of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Research, Brindlea Peterson

Honors Theses

Mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) are a type of traumatic brain injury (TBI) usually sustained from an injury to the head and are hard to diagnose due to the lack of physical evidence seen in diagnostic radiology. The estimated worldwide rate of incidence each year is 42 million, making mTBIs rather common. In the US armed forces, that rate of incidence is even higher due to the dangerous nature of the work being done. Many complications can come from not properly addressing an mTBI after it happens which makes being able to determine an appropriate return-to-play or return-to-duty time very …

Longitudinal Changes Of Regional Myelin Water Fraction During First Year After Moderate-To-Severe Diffuse Traumatic Brain Injury, Likowsky L. Desir

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a worldwide health issue with a highly heterogeneous disease characterization, including widespread white matter damage in the brain. Most non-invasive white matter imaging methods currently available, including diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), cannot reliably measure the degree of neurodegeneration due to various confounds, making it challenging to select an endpoint measure for neuroprotective clinical trials. The present study investigates longitudinal white matter changes, measured by a novel imaging metric, apparent myelin water fraction (aMWF), and its relationship with neuropsychological measures during the first year after TBI. Data from 15 adult patients with moderate-to-severe TBI and 30 …

Apathy And Brain Atrophy During The First Year Of Moderate-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: A Longitudinal Study, Gulnaz Kudoiarova

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Apathy, defined as disinterest and loss of motivation, is a common complication after moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (msTBI). The existing body of research in various neurological and neurodegenerative disorders suggests that apathetic symptoms may be associated with variation in the volume of the brain regions such as dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and ventral striatum. However, the longitudinal pattern of TBI-induced atrophy in these key regions and its relationship with apathy symptoms remain to be demonstrated. The current study aimed to describe the atrophy pattern in the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc; part of ventral striatum) after …

Promoting Partner-Inflicted Brain Injury Awareness Within The Domestic Violence Community, Christina Debowski, Heather Javaherian, Karen Park

Summer 2021 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

Background: Brain injury has been shown in research to decrease individuals’ ability to participate in their meaningful activities by negatively impacting their cognitive, emotional, and physical systems. Recent research has begun to indicate that survivors of domestic violence (DV) are at extreme risk for experiencing partner inflicted brain injury (PIBI)--brain injury that results from the physical violence of a survivor's intimate partner. However, despite the prevalence of PIBI within the DV community, research shows that survivors and DV service providers alike are not aware of how PIBI can impact survivors' daily life and wellbeing.

Purpose: The purpose of this project …

Machine Learning Classification Of Traumatic Brain Injury Patients Versus Healthy Controls Using Arterial Spin Labeled Perfusion Mri, Vanessa I. Grass

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most common causes of death and disability worldwide, yet accurate in vivo detection of TBI neuropathology remains challenging due to complexities in the structural and functional changes observed post-injury as well as limitations in conventional neuroimaging modalities. Although advanced neuroimaging techniques such as arterial spin labeling (ASL) can noninvasively assess cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes observed post-injury, this technique is underutilized in TBI research partly due to the low signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) inherent in ASL imaging. The aim of the current study is to examine the use of machine learning, specifically a Support …