Kaustav Mehta, Teaching Fellow, Data Science, SIAS recently presented a poster at NetsciX 2025, IIT Indore. This work stems from Kaustav’s third-year undergraduate capstone project at Krea University, conducted under the supervision of Dr Shyam Kumar Sudhakar, Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences, SIAS. Their research, titled “Exploring Comorbidity Networks in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Subjects through Graph Theory: A Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems Study”, has been developed into a journal paper and poster. The paper is currently under editorial review.
Abstract:
Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are characterised by myriad comorbidities that affect the functioning of the affected individuals. The comorbidities that TBI subjects experience span a wide range, ranging from psychiatric diseases to those that affect the various systems of the body. This is compounded by the fact that the problems that TBI subjects face could span over an extended period post-primary injury.
Further, no drug exists to prevent the spread of secondary injuries after a primary impact. In this study, the researchers employed graph theory to understand the patterns of comorbidities after mild TBIs. Upon application of network analysis and a novel clustering algorithm, they discovered interesting associations between comorbidities in young and old subjects with the condition. Specifically, bipolar disorder was seen as related to cardiovascular comorbidities, a pattern that was observed only in the young subjects. Similar associations between obsessive-compulsive disorder and rheumatoid arthritis were observed in young subjects. Psychiatric comorbidities exhibited differential associations with non-psychiatric comorbidities depending on the age of the cohort. The study results might have implications for effective surveillance and the management of comorbidities post-mild TBIs.
The pre-print is available at:https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.02.601618v1.full
For more details: https://netscix2025.iiti.ac.in/