Examining lactate in severe TBI using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Primary objective: Clinical management of acute traumatic brain injury (TBI) has emphasized identification of secondary mechanisms of pathophysiology. An important objective in this study is to use proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (pMRS) to examine early metabolic disturbance due to TBI. Research design: The current design is a case study with repeated measures. Method and procedure: Proton magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine neurometabolism in this case of very severe brain trauma at 9 and 23 days post-injury. MRI was performed on a clinical 1.5 Tesla scanner. Main outcomes and results: These data also reveal that pMRS methods can detect lactate elevations in an adult surviving severe head trauma and are sensitive to changes in basic neurometabolism during the first month of recovery. Conclusions: The current case study demonstrates the sensitivity of pMRS in detecting metabolic alterations during the acute recovery period. The case study reveals that lactate elevations may be apparent for weeks after severe neurotrauma. Further work in this area should endeavour to determine the ideal time periods for pMRS examination in severe TBI as well as the ideal locations of data acquisition (e.g. adjacent or distal to lesion sites).