Military & VeteransIronically, people with TBI and their families are relieved when neuroimaging shows a problem. Those images can give answers that can lead to more individually tailored treatment.
See more videos with Dr. Riedy.
Of the first 50 patients that we've done, we've seen abnormalities in 65%. And of that 65%, 80% have had either no prior imaging or normal prior imaging, which means that this is a new finding or a new imaging diagnosis of traumatic brain injury for them. So, I think that's an indication that our imaging techniques dedicated to traumatic bain injury are very sensitive. We're finding stuff that other folks haven't found. When we see something under imaging, we get together with our clinical colleagues— usually the neurologists and the internal medicine folks— and we discuss the findings. They are the ones that explain the findings to the family because they can frame it in terms of the symptomology and all the other things that they see on exam. So, to describe—for me as a neurologist—to describe these things in isolation— while it's often important to the service members and their families— it doesn't carry as much meaning as having the clinicians who have the whole picture explain it to them. They actually are quite relieved when we actually find something that we can point to that says this looks like it's from traumatic brain injury.
Posted on BrainLine September 28, 2012.
About the author: Gerard Riedy
Gerard Riedy, MD, PhD, a neuroradiologist with a background in biochemistry and imaging research, serves as the chief of neuroimaging for the National Intrepid Center of Excellence.
Produced by Victoria Tilney McDonough, Brian King, and Jared Schaubert, BrainLine.