599 No Cerebral White Matter Damage Due to Cons Sepsis in Preterm Infants Determined by Apparant Difussion Coefficient (ADC) on MRI

Abstract

Background and aims: Neonatal sepsis may cause cerebral white matter (WM) damage in preterm infants, compromising outcome. Coagulase-negative staphylococcal (CONS) sepsis is a frequent cause of morbidity in preterm infants, however generally not developing into a fulminant disease. To determine the impact of CONS sepsis on cerebral WM, the ADC of 3 WM regions was measured using diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI) performed at term-equivalent age.Methods: Cerebral DW-MRI was performed routinely in 81 preterm infants (GA< 31 weeks). Four infants with cerebral white matter damage due to venous infarction or hydrocephalus, before CONS sepsis occurred in 1, were excluded. The ADC of frontal, parietal and occipital WM was calculated in 31 infants with CONS sepsis and 50 infants without sepsis.Results: ADC values in parietal WM were significantly lower as compared to frontal or occipital WM in both groups (p< 0.001), indicating developmental differences (table 1). No differences were found in ADC values of infants with or without CONS sepsis in all 3 regions of cerebral WM.Table 1 p< 0.001 parietal vs. frontal and occipitalFull size tableConclusions: CONS sepsis in preterm infants is not associated with cerebral white matter damage as determined by ADCs in cerebral MRI at termequivalent age.