Abstract #0742

Mild Hypoxic-Ischemic Injury in the Neonatal Rat Brain: Longitudinal Evaluation of the White Matter Using Diffusion Tensor MR Imaging

Silun Wang¹, Ed. X. Wu^2,3, Kexia Cai^2,3, Ho-Fai Lau^2,3, Pek-Lan Khong¹

¹Department of Diagnostic Radiology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong; ²Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; ³Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong

We evaluated longitudinally mild hypoxic-ischemic (HI) induced white matter (WM) damage in a neonatal rat model using DTI and correlated the DTI indices with histological evaluations. Results showed significantly decreased FA and increased ˡ in the injured WM reflected dysmyelination. The longitudinal changes of increasing FA, decreasing ˡ, and no change in // in both injured and control WM suggests continued myelination. Furthermore, differences in FA and ˡ between injured and control WM decreased longitudinally. Our results demonstrated that mild HI induced WM damage continues to mature with partial recovery post-HI, and this could be reflected by DTI in vivo.