Abnormal brain structural patterns persist months after clinical symptoms had resolved from a mild concussion researchers found at the Lovelace Biomedical and Environmental Research Institute in Albuquerque, N.M.
Dr. Mayer and colleagues examined the underlying pathophysiology of mild traumatic brain injury through changes in gray matter diffusion and atrophy during the semiacute stage and found evidence that structural changes persist long past the improvement in neuropsychological tests. In a study that involved 50 participants, 26 patients showed evidence of increased cortical gray matter anisotropic diffusion 4 months post injury.