CLINICAL TRIAL
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Add like
Add dislike
Add to saved papers

Postconcussion syndrome and mild head injury: the role of early diagnosis using neuropsychological tests and functional magnetic resonance/spectroscopy.

World Neurosurgery 2014 November
OBJECTIVE: Postconcussion syndrome (PCS) is usually underestimated in cases of mild head injury (MHI). It is one of the most common causes of physical, cognitive, and psychomotor disturbances that affect the quality of life, work, and social reintegration of individuals. Until now, we did not have evidence of structural abnormalities shown by traditional imaging methods. We describe a series of instruments that confirm PCS with satisfactory evidence.

METHODS: We conducted a clinical prospective study of 19 adult patients selected from a pool of 320 adults who had MHI. The cognitive, executive, and memory functions of subjects were examined within the first 72 hours using neuropsychological tests. These results were analyzed with neurological examination and functional MR/spectroscopy.

RESULTS: Neurobehavioral alterations were found in 47% of cases, with posttraumatic amnesia. Around 55% of subjects experienced physical disturbances such as headache and postural vertigo due to PCS. The spectroscopy reports revealed neurometabolite disturbances in 54% of cases, particularly N-acetylaspartate (Naa) and the Naa/lactate ratio in the frontal lobe. We observed a relationship between metabolite disturbances in spectroscopy and the digit span backward test (P = .045).

CONCLUSIONS: This first diagnostic strategy supports with scientific evidence the presence of PCS in MHI. We identified physical and neuropsychological abnormalities from this group, affecting the areas of memory and learning. Evidence of neurometabolite disturbances were found specifically in the frontal lobe. It is necessary to complete comparative follow-up for an extended period of time. The neuropsychological and spectroscopy tests allow us to confirm the diagnosis of a syndrome that is usually neglected.

Full text links

We have located links that may give you full text access.
Can't access the paper?
Try logging in through your university/institutional subscription. For a smoother one-click institutional access experience, please use our mobile app.

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

Mobile app image

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

All material on this website is protected by copyright, Copyright © 1994-2024 by WebMD LLC.
This website also contains material copyrighted by 3rd parties.

By using this service, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.

Your Privacy Choices Toggle icon

You can now claim free CME credits for this literature searchClaim now

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app