Neuroimaging of traumatic brain injury in military personnel: an overview

Abstract Background The incidence of blunt-force traumatic brain injury (TBI) is especially prevalent in the military, where the emergency care admission rate has been reported to be 24.6–41.8 per 10,000 soldier-years. Given substantial advancements in modern neuroimaging techniques over the past decade in terms of structural, functional, and connectomic approaches, this mode of exploration can be viewed as best suited for understanding the underlying pathology and for providing proper intervention at effective time-points. Approach Here we survey neuroimaging studies of mild-to-severe TBI in military veterans with the intent to aid the field in the creation of a roadmap for clinicians and researchers whose aim is to understand TBI progression. Discussion Recent advancements on the quantification of neurocognitive dysfunction, cellular dysfunction, intracranial pressure, cerebral blood flow, inflammation, post-traumatic neuropathophysiology, on blood serum biomarkers and on their correlation to neuroimaging findings are reviewed to hypothesize how they can be used in conjunction with one another. This may allow clinicians and scientists to comprehensively study TBI in military service members, leading to new treatment strategies for both currently-serving as well as veteran personnel, and to improve the study of TBI more broadly.