The brains of people who have suffered serious head injuries age faster than brains in healthy individuals.
Analysis of brain scans from more than 1,500 healthy people found that the “brain age” of people who had suffered severe head injuries was on average five years older than their actual age
The researchers, at Imperial College London, UK, used a computer the program to estimate the "brain age" of 113 more healthy people and 99 patients who had suffered traumatic brain injuries. Scans were taken between one month and 46 years after their injuries.
“Your chronological age is not necessarily the best indicator of your health or how much longer you will live,” said lead study author Dr James Cole, of the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London.
“There is a lot of interest in finding biomarkers of ageing that can be used to measure a certain aspect of your health and predict future problems.”
The study, published in the April issue of Annals of Neurology used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study changes in brain structure, as well as a machine-learning algorithm to develop a computer program that could recognise age-related differences in the volume of white matter and grey matter in different parts of the brain.
In healthy controls, the average difference between predicted age and real age was zero. In people who had suffered traumatic brain injuries, the difference was significantly higher, with a bigger discrepancy in patients with more severe injuries.
Bigger differences in predicted age were associated with cognitive impairments such as poor memory and slow reaction times.
There was also a correlation between time since injury and predicted age.
“Traumatic brain injury is not a static event,” said Dr Cole. “It can set off secondary processes, possibly related to inflammation, that can cause more damage in the brain for years afterwards, and may contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia.”
The researchers now want to undertake a study in which the program is used to estimate brain age in healthy people and test if people with “old brains” are more likely to get neurodegenerative diseases.
“If it works, we could use it to identify people at high risk, enrol them in trials and potentially prescribe treatments that might stave off disease,” added Dr Cole.
Cole JH et al. Prediction of brain age suggests accelerated atrophy after traumatic brain injury. Annals of Neurology April 2015; doi: 10.1002/ana.24367
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