Ashok Panigrahy1,2, Marvin D. Nelson1,
Floyd H. Gilles3, Lisa Paquette4, Istvan Seri4,
Stefan Bluml1,5
1Department of Radiology, Childrens
Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States; 2Department
of Radiology, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, Pittsburgh, PA,
United States; 3Department of Neuropathology, Childrens Hospital
Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States; 4Division of
Neonatology, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States; 5Rudi
Schulte Research Institute, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
In
this study, we compare age-dependent changes of metabolites using
quantitative MR spectroscopy in white
and grey matter of premature neonates without brain injury with normal
biochemical maturation in age-matched term neonates. There are subtle but significant
differences in the biochemical maturation of white matter in premature
infants with normal conventional MR imaging when compared to control term
infants. The observations suggest accelerated white matter development in the
premature brain possibly from increased sensory-motor stimulation in the
extra-uterine environment or possibly a reparative response to subtle brain
injury (i.e. possibly related to sepsis induced white matter injury).