Magnetic Resonance Imaging Criteria for Post-Concussion Syndrome: A Study of 127 Post-Concussion Syndrome Patients.

The purpose of this study was to assess the frequency of structural lesions on conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain in a large prospective cohort of post-concussion syndrome (PCS) patients. Conventional 3T MRI was used to evaluate 127 prospectively enrolled PCS patients and 29 controls for non-specific white matter hyperintensities (WMH) and traumatic structural lesions, including encephalomalacia, atrophy, microhemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and cortical siderosis. All PCS patients had a clinical diagnosis of one or more concussions based on the Concussion in Sport Group (CISG) consensus statements. Patients with recognized intracranial hemorrhage on prior head computed tomography (CT) and MRI were excluded. The differences between the PCS and control groups were analyzed. Four patients in the PCS group (3.1%) had positive findings, which included microhemorrhages in two patients and encephalomalacia in another two patients. None of these lesions was present in the control group, but there was no statistical difference between the two groups (