Abstract #0425

Regional differences in absolute metabolite level couplings in a longitudinal study of children

Martha J Holmes¹, Frances C Robertson¹, Francesca Little², Mark F Cotton³, Els Dobbels³, Andre JW van der Kouwe^4,5, Barbara Laughton³, and Ernesta M Meintjes¹

¹MRC/UCT Medical Imaging Research Unit, Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa, ²Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa, ³Children’s Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Unit, Department of Paediatrics & Child Health, Tygerberg Children’s Hospital and Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa, ⁴A.A. Martinos Centre for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States, ⁵Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States

1H-MRS non-invasively quantifies metabolites that play important roles in neurodevelopment. The physiological functions of these metabolites, however, are still debated. Examining the regional intercorrelations between metabolites such as NAA, creatine, choline and glutamate provides insight about the role of individual and coupled biochemicals in the developing brain. We examined correlations between pairs of metabolites in the midfrontal gray matter (MFGM), peritrigonal white matter (PWM), basal ganglia (BG) at 5, 7 and 9 years in a cohort of South African children. We found significant metabolite couplings in both the MFGM and PWM, however no significant couplings were observed in the BG.

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

Join Here