Prediction of Short-term Outcome in Patients With Acute Closed Traumatic Brain Injury Using Magnetic Resonance Elastography

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major public health issue, and intracranial hypertension in the acute phase remains a critical scientific issue. Many patients with acute closed TBI received conservative, non-surgical treatments at first, while 5%~19% of which develops intractable intracranial hypertension that requires emergent surgery. Therefore, it is of great clinical significance to identify patients who are at high risk of deterioration in the early stage. Previous studies have found that brain compliance is a contributive factor to intracranial pressure, and might serve in the development of intracranial hypertension after TBI. We made assumption that intracranial pressure has a negative relationship with brain compliance providing that the volume of hematoma remains constant. However, few studies have applied magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) in evaluating brain compliance in patients with TBI. Therefore, this study is designed to enroll patients with acute closed traumatic brain injury who are initially treated non-surgically. Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) sequences are performed to non-invasively assess patients' brain compliances, in the hope of exploring the potential value of MRE biomarkers to predict the short-term outcome in patients with acute closed TBI who are initially receive non-surgical treatments.