Abstract
Objective: Preterm infants are at high risk of the adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. Our aim is to explore the value of diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) in diagnosing brain developmental disorders in premature infants.Materials and Methods: A total of 52 subjects were included in this study, including 26 premature infants as the preterm group, and 26 full-term infants as the control group. Routine MRI and DKI examinations were performed. Mean kurtosis (MK), radial kurtosis (RK), fractional anisotropy (FA), and mean diffusivity (MD) values were measured in the brain regions including posterior limbs of the internal capsule (PLIC), anterior limb of internal capsule (ALIC), parietal white matter (PWM), frontal white matter (FWM), thalamus (TH), caudate nucleus (CN), and genu of the corpus callosum (GCC). The chi-squared test, t-test, Spearman's correlation analysis, and receiver operating characteristic curve were used for data analyses.Results: In the premature infant group, the MK and RK values of PLIA, ALIC, and PWM were lower than those in the control group (p < 0.05). The FA values of PWM, FWM, and TH were also lower than those of the control group (p < 0.05). The area under curves of MK in PLIC and ALIC, MD in PWM, and FA in FWM were 0.813, 0.802, 0.842, and 0.867 (p < 0.05). In the thalamus and CN, the correlations between MK, RK values, and postmenstrual age (PMA) were higher than those between FA, MD values, and PMA.Conclusion: Diffusion kurtosis imaging can be used as an effective tool in detecting brain developmental disorders in premature infants.
Highlights
In the recent years, the birth rate of premature babies has increased significantly in many countries [1]
RK value (0.716 ± 0.148 vs. 0.821 ± 0.150, p = 0.037) of posterior limbs of the internal capsule (PLIC) were significantly different from the term infant group
Through comparison with term infants, this study shows that Diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) is helpful in diagnosing brain retardation in premature infants
Summary
The birth rate of premature babies has increased significantly in many countries [1]. With the development of monitoring and treatment technology in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), the survival rate of premature babies has been greatly improved. Compared with full-term babies, the brain developments of premature babies are impaired due to the young gestational age (GA) [2]. To provide objective indicators for clinical evaluation of brain development status, it would be necessary to quantitatively analyze the brain development of preterm and full-term infants. Traditional diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) technique has been used to study the brain development of premature infants.
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