Positron emission tomography imaging for the assessment of mild traumatic brain injury and chronic traumatic encephalopathy: recent advances in radiotracers

A chronic phase following repetitive mild traumatic brain injury can present as chronic traumatic encephalopathy in some cases, which requires a neuropathological examination to make a definitive diagnosis. Positron emission tomography (PET) is a molecular imaging modality that has high sensitivity for detecting even very small molecular changes, and can be used to quantitatively measure a range of molecular biological processes in the brain using different radioactive tracers. Functional changes have also been reported in patients with different forms of traumatic brain injury, especially mild traumatic brain injury and subsequent chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Thus, PET provides a novel approach for the further evaluation of mild traumatic brain injury at molecular levels. In this review, we discuss the recent advances in PET imaging with different radiotracers, including radioligands for PET imaging of glucose metabolism, tau, amyloid-beta, γ-aminobutyric acid type A receptors, and neuroinflammation, in the identification of altered neurological function. These novel radiolabeled ligands are likely to have widespread clinical application, and may be helpful for the treatment of mild traumatic brain injury. Moreover, PET functional imaging with different ligands can be used in the future to perform large-scale and sequential studies exploring the time-dependent changes that occur in mild traumatic brain injury.