Diffuse axonal injury (DAI) grade III forms a distinct subset of traumatic brain injury wherein it is difficult to predict the outcome and the time taken for early recovery in terms of sustained eye opening and standing with minimal assistance. This study seeks to determine differences in the fractional anisotropy (FI) and diffusion-weighted image (DWI) values obtained from the seeds placed at an appropriate region of interest (ROI) within the magnetic resonance (MR) tractography of the brainstem of brain-injured patients. We found that differences in the DWI values along the corticospinal tract were associated with the days required for early recovery. Moreover, dysautonomia was an independent variable governing a delayed recovery in these patients. The lesions posterior to the corticospinal tract in the brainstem conferred increased odds for the subsequent development of dysautonomia. We conclude that MR tractography, in addition to depicting the anatomical integrity of the concerned tracts, has the potential of becoming a surrogate clinical imaging marker for effectively predicting days for early recovery among patients with DAI grade III.
Keywords: Axonal injury; Brain; Corticospinal tracts; Dysautonomia; Magnetic resonance; Tractography.