Premium
Pyramidal tract maturation after brain injury in newborns with heart disease
Author(s) -
Partridge Savannah C.,
Vigneron Daniel B.,
Charlton Natalie N.,
Berman Jeffrey I.,
Henry Roland G.,
Mukherjee Pratik,
McQuillen Patrick S.,
Karl Tom R.,
Barkovich A. James,
Miller Steven P.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
annals of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.764
H-Index - 296
eISSN - 1531-8249
pISSN - 0364-5134
DOI - 10.1002/ana.20772
Subject(s) - fractional anisotropy , white matter , medicine , diffusion mri , magnetic resonance imaging , pyramidal tracts , traumatic brain injury , corticospinal tract , tractography , perioperative , autopsy , population , cardiology , pathology , anesthesia , radiology , anatomy , environmental health , psychiatry
Objective Our objective was to quantify white matter tract development in term newborns with congenital heart disease, a population at high risk for perioperative brain injury, using magnetic resonance imaging diffusion tensor tractography (DTT).Methods Twenty‐five newborns with congenital heart disease were imaged before and after surgery, with a median of 2 weeks between serial magnetic resonance imaging examinations. DTT was performed to segment bilateral pyramidal tracts using semiautomated fiber tracking software, and manual region of interest measurements were taken for comparison.Results Significant maturational rates of increasing fractional anisotropy (median, 4.4% per week) and decreasing mean diffusivity (D av ) (median, −2.0% per week) in the pyramidal tract were measured in infants without brain injury. Fractional anisotropy maturation rates were highest in newborns with normal scans, intermediate (median, 2.4% per week) in those with postoperative injury, and lowest (median, 0.9% per week) in those with preoperative injury, indicating a significant trend across brain injury groups ( p = 0.015). D av maturation rates did not differ across injury groups ( p = 0.15). Manual region of interest measures showed greater variability in serial measurements, and no significant differences were identified between injury groups, suggesting that DTT may provide more sensitive measures.Interpretation DTT is feasible in term newborns and may help to characterize abnormal white matter tract development following acquired brain injury. Ann Neurol 2006