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. 2015 Apr 8;9:112. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2015.00112

Figure 4.

Figure 4

Proton magnetic resonance spectra and conventional magnetic resonance images showing the volume of interest for spectroscopic imaging of a normal control (left panel), Patient 1 (central panel), and Patient 8 (right panel) with traumatic brain injury (TBI). On conventional MRI, Patient 1 shows a focal hematoma in the frontal left hemisphere and patient 8 shows diffuse MRI abnormalities. Spectra show decreases of N-acetylaspartate (NAA) and increases of choline (Cho) and lactate (La) in patients with TBI (a and b in central and right panels) with respect to the normal control (a in left panel). The spectra of Patient 1 (central panel) show more pronounced metabolic abnormalities than those of Patient 8 (right panel), despite the fact that Patient 8 showed markedly more abnormalities on conventional MRI. In the spectra of Patient 1 (central panel), metabolic abnormalities are clearly evident in the normal appearing brain. Finally, in Patient 1, voxels inside the focal hematoma (c in central panel) were excluded to avoid the artifacts that could be derived by the cerebral haemorrhagic contusion. Cr, creatine. Reproduced from J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry, Marino et al. 78: 501–507 (2007) with permission from BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.