Increased brain perfusion in neonatal hypoxic ischemic injury with negative reading of DWI, T1/T2-weighted images: Implications of perfusion MRI for reperfusion response monitoring and prognostication

Brain perfusion plays an important role in the diagnosis and prognosis of neonatal hypoxic ischemic injury (HII). However, the studies on perfusion changes in HII neonates with negative reading in conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (HII-) are rarely reported. Here, we used arterial-spin-labeled perfusion MRI to compare cerebral blood flow among health controls, HII neonates with positive reading of conventional MRI images (HII+) and HII- neonates. The results demonstrate that perfusion is altered in HII neonates even with negative reading of conventional MRI images, suggesting importance of inclusion of perfusion MRI for evaluating HII in clinical practice and research.