MRI could determine if patients will recover
MRI could determine if patients will recover
Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for vegetative patients could determine which ones eventually will recover and which ones will not. That's the concensus from a study published in the June 13 issue of The Lancet. Specifically, cerebral MRI findings after head injury can predict the outcome of the post-traumatic vegetative state, notes researcher Andreas Kampfl, MD, of the University Hospital Innsbruck in Innsbruck, Austria.
Characteristics of a vegetative state include the continuation of autonomic body functions, such as breathing and digestion, in the absence of intellectual and emotional activity. Vegetative patients can remain in the condition indefinitely, but half of all patients do regain consciousness within a year.
Reliable methods for predicting long-term outcomes for vegetative patients have been sought after because diagnosing a vegetative state creates emotional and financial drains on the affected patient's family. Often families make difficult decisions concerning the nature and time span of continuing care without the benefit of tests that might point to the likelihood of recovery for the patient.
Researchers obtained brain MRIs from 80 vegetative patients taken six to eight weeks following their injury and observed their progress for one year. After 12 months, 38 patients had recovered, while 42 patients remained in a vegetative state. The researchers found, after comparing the MRIs of the two groups, that those in the persistent vegetative state tended to have a greater number of damaged brain areas than those who recovered.
Patients with injuries in three areas in particular had higher rates of persistent vegetative state. Those areas, which might play a role in consciousness, were the following:
o corpus callosum;
o corona radiata;
o dorsolateral brainstem.
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