Traumatic Brain Injury Research From Innovation Magazine, Vol 1,
2012 Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is all too common in modern
military conflicts. UVA is finding a better way to detect it. We
are engaged in pioneering work that may lead to a handheld
device to facilitate triage of TBI right on the battlefield. The
device, a portable ultrasound unit, would evaluate brain tissue
stiffness, which is reduced after injury. “It interrogates the
tissue with acoustic energy to determine the overall
viscoelastic response,” says James Stone, MD. PhD. and assistant
professor of radiology and medical imaging at the School of
Medicine. Novel Molecular Imaging Probes Stone and his fellow
researchers, including Jason Druzgal, MD. PhD. and Greg Helm,
MD. PhD., also are evaluating novel molecular imaging probes to
detect TBI at the cellular level. The standard methods, anatomic
MRI and CGT scans, lack detail about how the brain has been
injured. “One of our goals is to see if PET, fMRI and DTI are
more effective than anatomic