Abstract #0490

Differences in Blood Perfusion Between Extremely Low Birth Weight (ELBW) Pre-Term Infants and Control Term Infants

Arvind Caprihan¹, U Sakoglu¹, J Pfeuffer², J Rael³, J Stephen¹, J Lowe³, S Duvall¹, C Gasparovic¹, R K. Ohls³, J P. Phillips^1,3

¹The Mind Research Network, Albuquerque, NM, USA; ²Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc, Charlestown, MA, USA; ³University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

Reduced blood perfusion is one of the causes of ischemic brain injury in extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants. One potential new therapy to reduce or prevent brain injury is the use of human recombinant erythropoietin (Epo). We compare neurodevelopmental outcomes with brain blood perfusion distribution in preterm infants who received Epo during their hospitalization, compared to preterm infants who did not, and compared with healthy term controls. This is an ongoing blind study and at present we report on blood perfusion measurements by pulsed arterial spin labeling (PASL) in ELBW infants and healthy term controls.