Andrew David Chung1, Revital Nossin-Manor1,2,
Hilary E. A. Whyte2,3, Margot J. Taylor1,2, Manohar M.
Shroff1, John G. Sled4,5
1Diagnostic Imaging, Hospital for Sick
Children, Toronto, ON, Canada; 2Neurosciences & Mental Health,
Research Institute, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada; 3Neonatology,
Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada; 4Physiology
Experimental Medicine, Research Institute, Hospital for Sick Children,
Toronto, ON, Canada; 5Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto,
Toronto, ON, Canada
Our
study compared MTR values of the basal ganglia (BG), thalami, and pons in the
very preterm (<32 weeks GA) brain. Forty-four infants were separated into
four groups based on radiological findings on conventional MR scans: normal,
WM-injury, Grade I GMH + WM-injury, Grade II GMH + WM-injury. MTR increased
with GA in both the BG and thalami in the normal and WM-injury groups. This
relation was not seen in the pons in any of the groups. In the BG, the normal
group demonstrated consistently higher MTR values than the WM-injury group,
indicating GM effects not detected on conventional MRI.