MRIs Show Signs of Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries Not Found in CT Scans

Hospital MRIs may be better at predicting long-term outcomes for people with mild traumatic brain injuries than CT scans, the standard technique for evaluating such injuries in the emergency room — that’s according to a clinical trial from researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and the San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (SFGH).

The study, which appears in this month’s issue of the journal Annals of Neurology, was led by UCSF neuroradiologist Esther Yuh, MD, PhD. It followed 135 people treated for mild traumatic brain injuries over the past two years at one of three urban hospitals with level-one trauma centers — SFGH, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and University Medical Center Brackenridge in Austin, Texas — as part of a study called National Institutes of Health- (NIH-) funded TRACK-TBI (Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in Traumatic Brain Injury). For more information, click here to read the full release.