DTI in Professional Boxers

Distribution of microstructural damage in the brains of professional boxers: A diffusion MRI study. By Chappell MH et al in J Magn Reson Imaging 2006 Jul 28; [Epub ahead of print]

"Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was used to determine the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and fractional anisotropy (FA) in the brains of 81 professional male boxers and 12 male control subjects. Voxel-based analysis (VBA) of both the diffusion and anisotropy values was performed using statistical parametric mapping (SPM). Increases in the ADC, and decreases in FA were identified in deep white matter (WM), while decreases in ADC were identified in cortical gray matter (GM). Regions of positive correlation between ADC and age were also found in both the boxer and control groups, although the regions and strength of the correlation were not the same in each group. Using VBA, authors localized previously unreported abnormalities in the brains of professional boxers. These abnormalities are assumed to reflect cumulative (chronic) brain injury resulting from nonsevere head trauma."