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Abstract #2488

Early Myelination in the Very Preterm Brain a Combined MTR-DTI Study

Revital Nossin-Manor1,2, Dallas Card1, Drew J. Morris1, Margot J. Taylor1,2, John G. Sled3,4

1Diagnostic Imaging, the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada; 2Neurosciences & Mental Health, Research Institute, the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada; 3Physiology Experimental Medicine, Research Institute, the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada; 4Medical Biophysics , University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada


MTR and DTI have been used to quantify maturation. MTR is related to myelin concentrations, whereas DTI parameters manifest restriction of water movement in tissue. We compare these modalities in very preterm neonates (<32 weeks gestational age) using voxel based analysis to propose a multi-modal approach towards a complete description of the maturation-myelination processes taking place in white and gray matter structures. Twenty-two neonates born between 27 to 31 weeks and scanned after birth were included. Voxel based linear regressions of FA against MTR values revealed different trends across brain regions separating axonal maturation into two components: order and myelination.