文章基本信息

标题：Spatial regression analysis of MR diffusion reveals subject-specific white matter changes associated with repetitive head impacts in contact sports
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作者：Patrick D. Asselin ; Yu Gu ; Kian Merchant-Borna 等
期刊名称：Scientific Reports
电子版ISSN：2045-2322
出版年度：2020
卷号：10
期号：1
DOI：10.1038/s41598-020-70604-y
出版社：Springer Nature
摘要：Repetitive head impacts (RHI) are a growing concern due to their possible neurocognitive effects, with research showing a season of RHI produce white matter (WM) changes seen on neuroimaging. We conducted a secondary analysis of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data for 28 contact athletes to compare WM changes. We collected pre-season and post-season DTI scans for each subject, approximately 3 months apart. We collected helmet data for the athletes, which we correlated with DTI data. We adapted the SPatial REgression Analysis of DTI (SPREAD) algorithm to conduct subject-specific longitudinal DTI analysis, and developed global inferential tools using functional norms and a novel robust p value combination test. At the individual level, most detected injured regions (93.3%) were associated with decreased FA values. Using meta-analysis techniques to combine injured regions across subjects, we found the combined injured region at the group level occupied the entire WM skeleton, suggesting the WM damage location is subject-specific. Several subject-specific functional summaries of SPREAD-detected WM change, e.g., the $${L}^{\infty }$$ norm, significantly correlated with helmet impact measures, e.g. cumulative unweighted rotational acceleration (adjusted p = 0.0049), time between hits rotational acceleration (adjusted p value 0.0101), and time until DTI rotational acceleration (adjusted p = 0.0084), suggesting RHIs lead to WM changes.