Abstract #2066

Thompson D, Wood S, Inder T, Warfield S, Doyle L, Egan G

The hippocampus appears vulnerable in preterm infants who have been found to be susceptible to later learning and memory deficits. This study compares five MRI post-processing techniques to determine the most reliable method for hippocampal segmentation in the newborn brain. In addition, hemispheric asymmetry, known to exist in the adult brain, is examined in term and preterm infants, including sick preterm infants who received postnatal steroids. The most reliable technique for obtaining hippocampal volume was tracing on combined raw coronal t2w and pdw images. There was significant hemispheric asymmetry within all infant hippocampal volumes, except for the preterm infants who had received high dose steroids. This is the first study to systematically analyze the most reliable method for hippocampal volume and hemispheric asymmetry in the newborn brain.