ABSTRACT
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a common and complex form of trauma. If inertial acceleration/deceleration forces are transmitted to the head, widespread injury to axons may happen, which is also known as diffuse axonal injury (DAI). DAI leads to neural network dysfunction, and contributes to cognitive, behavioral and emotional impairments frequently observed in TBI patients. The diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of DAI remains a challenging clinical entity. Growing evidence demonstrate that neuroimaging modalities such as MRI can detect subtle or overt white matter lesions in DAI patients with all severities of injury. Moreover, peripheral blood biomarkers gain an emerging role in the clinical evaluation of axonal injury. As for treatment of DAI, the new clinical results are also worthy of attention. The authors aim to briefly summarize the recent advancements concerning non-invasive diagnosis, prognostication and treatment of DAI, which may shed light on further clinical studies.