Proper timing for the evaluation of neonatal brain white matter development: a diffusion tensor imaging study
Abstract
We aimed to determine the timing for assessing birth status of the developing brain (i.e. brain maturity at birth) by exploring the postnatal age-related changes in neonatal brain white matter (WM). The institutional review board approved this study and all informed parental consents were obtained. 133 neonates (gestational age, 30-42 weeks) without abnormalities on MRI were studied with regard to WM development by diffusion tensor imaging-derived fractional anisotropy (FA). Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS), locally-weighted scatterplot smoothing (LOESS) and piecewise linear-fitting were used to investigate the relationship between FA and postnatal age. FA along corticospinal tract (CST), optic radiation (OR), auditory radiation (AR) and thalamus-primary somatosensory cortex (thal-PSC) were extracted by automated fibre-tract quantification; their differences and associations with neonatal neurobehavioural scores at various postnatal age ranges were analysed by Wilcoxon's rank-sum test and Pearson's correlation. Using TBSS, postnatal age (days 1-28) positively correlated with FA in multiple WMs, including CST, OR, AR and thal-PSC (p<0.05). On the other hand, when narrowing the postnatal age window to days 1-14, no significa...Continue Reading
References
Diffusion tensor imaging assessment of brain white matter maturation during the first postnatal year
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