In a man of 56 years – a victim of traffic accident, contusions in both temporal lobes of the brain and a small subdural and subarachnoid haemorrhage were diagnosed by CT and MR examination. According to the findings of petechial haemorrhages in the corpus callosum a diffuse axonal injury was clinically diagnosed. After 2 months the patient died. Excisions of corpus callosum and the brain-stem were examined by histological staining including Palmgren@s method and by immunohistochemical detection of neuron-specific enolase (NSE) in damaged axons. Clinical findings were compared with morphological findings, i.e. autopsy, histological and immunohistochemical examination. The possibilities of clinical diagnostics of diffuse axonal injury are discussed.

        Key words: diffuse axonal injury – immunohistochemistry – neuron-specific enolase