Of all participants, 31 percent showed signs of microbleeds. Fifty-eight percent of those with severe head injury showed indications, as did 27 percent of mild cases. Microbleeds appeared as either linear streaks or dotted lesions, and those who showed signs of them had both types. Frontal lobes were the part of the brain most likely to incur microbleeds, and those with them were more likely to experience a greater level of disability compared to those who did not have them.

The authors were unable to determine the direction of the relationship between TMBs and acute injuries, but specify that future research may reveal how much information about head injuries can be extracted from the presence of microbleeds, and to help clinicians determine which patients should undergo specific imaging following head injuries.


"Combining these technologies and methods allowed us to get a much more detailed look at microbleed structure and get a better sense of just how extensive they are," said Allison Griffin, a graduate student and first author of the paper, in a statement.

Disability in patients was determined by a commonly used outcome scale. No evidence from the study suggests that MR scans should replace CT for suspected head injury.

Other participants included the University of Maryland and the Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

The findings are supported by the NIH Intramural Research Program.

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