Alan Bainbridge1, Giles Kendall2, Enrico DeVita3, Cornelia Hagmann4, Andrew Kapetanakis4, Ernest Cady3, Nicola Robertson4
1Medical Physics & Bio-Engineering, UCL Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London , UK; 2Academic Neonatology, EGA UCL Institute for Womens Health, University College , London, UK; 3Medical Physics & Bio-Engineering, UCL Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK; 4Academic Neonatology, EGA UCL Institute for Womens Health, University College, London, UK
Therapeutic cerebral hypothermia following perinatal hypoxia-ischaemia reduces both mortality and survivor neurodevelopmental disability. Precise knowledge of regional brain temperatures is needed in order to refine and optimise therapeutic hypothermia. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy thermometry (MRSt) is non-invasive and has been successfully used to measure regional brain temperature in human adults. Our aim was to assess the relation between deep brain (TDB) and rectal (Trec) temperature using MRSt in normothermic and hypothermic human neonates. The strong linear correlation between Trec and TDB suggests that MRSt can successfully measure neonatal brain temperature over a broad temperature range.