Table 1.

Clinical vs. experimental research: a comparison of methods.

Methods	Use*		Type of information
	Clinical	Experimental	Temporal	Spatial	Molecular	Functional
IN VIVO IMAGING
CT	2685	150	Yes	Yes	No	No
MRI	3595	435	Yes	Yes	Yes/no	Yes
PET	230	37	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes/no
NEUROBEHAVIORAL ASSAYS
Injury severity	4983	705	Yes	No	No	Yes
Neurobehavioral	289	140	Yes	No	No	Yes
CEREBRAL MONITORING
ICP	1089	220	Yes	No	No	Yes
CBF	1862	879	Yes	No	No	Yes
TCD	301	19	Yes	No	No	Yes
qEEG	2258	375	Yes	Yes/no	No	Yes
BIOCHEMICAL ASSAYS
Blood/metabolites	46	42	Yes	No	Yes	No
CSF/metabolites	25	5	Yes	No	Yes	No
MD/metabolites	20	15	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Blood/protein biomarkers	291	203	Yes	No	Yes	No
CSF/protein biomarkers	91	30	Yes	No	Yes	No
MD/protein biomarkers	6	1	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
IN VITRO ANALYSIS OF BRAIN TISSUE
Histopathology	7461	6005	No	Yes	No	Yes/no
IHC	434	1862	No	Yes	Yes	Yes/no
ISHH	36	392	No	Yes	Yes	Yes/no
EM	144	509	No	Yes	Yes/no	Yes/no
Genomics	45	47	No	Yes	Yes	Yes/no
Proteomics	42	43	No	Yes	Yes	Yes/no

*Use is defined as relative frequency of use based on the number of publications retrieved by searching PubMed using the search terms: “traumatic brain injury” in combination with the methods presented in the left column together with the limitation “animal” or “human.” The number of papers found is registered in the second and third columns on the left. CT, computer tomography; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging; PET, positron emission tomography; ICP, intracranial pressure; CBF, cerebral blood flow; TCD, transcranial Doppler; qEEG, quantitative electroencephalography; CSF, cerebrospinal fluid; MD, microdialysate; IHC, immunohistochemistry; ISHH, in situ hybridization histochemistry; EM, electron microscopy.