Connectomic assessment of injury burden and longitudinal structural network alterations in moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury

Tiziana Currieri – PhD student University of Palermo

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant public health concern resulting from external mechanical forces that disrupt the brain’s structural connectivity. TBI’s heterogeneity poses challenges for treatment, necessitating measures to assess structural disruptions and individualize care. This study introduces the network normality score (NNS) to evaluate TBI’s structural integrity, leveraging its diffuse nature and patient diversity. Findings reveal significant divergence in the brain network of moderate-to-severe TBI patients compared to healthy controls, with NNS effectively capturing injury severity, independent of cognitive recovery. Comparisons with traditional graph theory measures underscore NNS’s superior characterization of TBI complexity.

About the author

Tiziana Currieri is a PhD student at the University of Palermo. She received her MS in Computer Engineering in 2021 obtaining top marks. She starts the PhD program in 2022 and join to the Medical Imaging Laboratory of the department of Biomedicine, Neuroscience and Advanced Diagnostics in Palermo. Her research is focused on the development Operating System optimized for Medical Imaging Management and Medical Imaging Analysis using AI techniques. For now, she is as a Visiting Scientist at the Sano center for computational medicine with the aim of expanding her knowledge on the various aspects of neuroimaging.