Abstract #3595

Characterization of Cortex and White Matter Injury in a Mild Hypoxic-Ischemic Neonatal Rat Model by Diffusion Tensor MR Imaging

Silun Wang¹, Ed. X. Wu^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 hypoxic-ischemic (HI) induced cortex and white matter (WM) damage in a mild HI neonatal rat model at 24h post HI by diffusion tensor MR imaging (DTI) and correlated the DTI indices with histological evaluations. Results showed that significantly decreased FA and // reflected HI induced astrogliosis in the injured cortex, whereas significantly decreased FA with increased ˡ indicated dysmyelination in the WM. Our results demonstrated that early mild HI induced cortex and WM damage could be reflected by DTI indices and these may be potentially useful biomarkers to non-invasively monitor mild HI induced neonatal brain damage.