I am excited to share our new publication on DTI in traumatic nerve injury and repair.

This is work done by @pridmost in collaboration with @vuiis, @MarkDoes, and VUMC Plastic Surgery.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/acn3.51270

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Nerve damage following trauma can result in catastrophic loss of function if not detected and treated
in a timely manner.

Surgery is often required to regain function, but outcomes are variable (up to 40% fail) and options for monitoring are painful and limited.

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Because regeneration is slow, physicians must “wait and watch” for months and rely on measures from patient history/exam to determine success.

During this time, muscles atrophy, the critical window for surgical revision passes, and the prospect for recovery diminishes.

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Given these limitations, @pridmost set out to develop a DTI-based biomarker that monitors nerve regeneration prior to muscle reinnervation, which would enable earlier detection of failed repairs, earlier re-operations, and improved restoration of sensorimotor function.

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We found DTI can detect abnormalities between injured and healthy nerves, measure recovery, detect failed repairs, and determine if re-operation was successful. Additional comparisons to carpal tunnel syndrome showed that DTI is sensitive to injury severity.

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Ongoing work @BarrowNeuro focuses on 1) applying these methods in proximal nerve injuries and transfers and 2) validating in animal models.

This work is supported by @SupportBarrow and @NINDSfunding.

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And this ongoing work is in collaboration with @RoryMurphy16