Abstract #4584

Altered Cortical Folding Depth in Fetuses with Down Syndrome

HyukJin Yun¹, Juan David Perez¹, Neel Madan², Rie Kitano³, Shizuko Akiyama⁴, Diana W. Bianchi⁵, P. Ellen Grant¹, Tomo Tarui⁴, and Kiho Im¹

¹Newborn Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States, ²Radiology, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States, ³Obstetrics and Gynecology, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New Hyde Park, NY, United States, ⁴Mother Infant Research Institute, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States, ⁵Medical Genetics Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, Bethesda, MD, United States

Analyzing fetal brains with Down syndrome is an interesting are because genetic factors affect brain development in early fetal stages. In addition to cortical volumetric and areal measures used in our previous studies, cortical folding in the fetal brain would be an important marker of altered neurodevelopment due to Down syndrome. Thus, we calculated sulcal depth to quantify cortical folding and compared sulcal depth between Down syndrome and typically developing fetuses. Down syndrome fetuses showed significantly altered sulcal depth compared to typically developing peers in the regions related to decreased neurogenesis in early fetal life.

This abstract and the presentation materials are available to members only; a login is required.

Join Here