Abstract #3418

DTI Study of Cerebral White Matter Development in Preterm Children at Preadolescent Ages to Examine Persisting Changes

Lutfi Tugan Muftuler¹, Elysia Poggi Davis², Curt A. Sandman², Orhan Nalcioglu¹, James Fallon²

¹Center for Functional Onco-Imaging, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA; ²Psychiatry & Human Behavior, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

We used DTI to investigate persisting changes in cerebral white matter development in preterm children at preadolescent ages. White matter deficits in preterm children were studied by others, since synaptic proliferation, pruning and ongoing myelination influence cognitive development. Most of those studies were conducted with infants at term equivalent age and there are only a few with adolescents. Their results varied significantly, possibly because of the variations in the cohorts chosen. We attempted to minimize the heterogeneity of the study cohort and used higher directional and spatial resolutions for better sensitivity. DTI parameters were compared to those of term-born controls.