Uc Science Today

People often don’t pay much attention to small brain injuries suffered in a minor car collision or after accidentally falling and hitting their head. But these types of traumas should not be ignored. “There is a significant minority ranging from anywhere from 1/5 to 1/3 of people who have what’s called persistent post-concussive syndrome where for months or even years after the injury they have continued problems like headaches, dizziness, insomnia, depression, problems with thinking." That’s Pratik Mukherjee, a professor of radiology at the University of California, San Francisco. Small brain injuries often go undetected by traditional MRI scans. But Mukherjee may have found a solution. “We are trying to develop better MRI methods for diagnosing these concussions.” They’re using more advanced image capturing technology, which may allow researchers to predict if injured people continue experiencing symptoms later in life.