Carola van Pul1,2, Britt van Kooij3,
Gijs Hoskam4, Linda de Vries3, Manon Benders3,
Anna Vilanova4, Floris Groenendaal3
1Clinical Physics, Maxima Medical
Center, Veldhoven, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands; 2School of Medical
Physics and Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven,
Noord-Brabant, Netherlands; 3Neonatology, Wilhemina Children's
Hospital, Utrecht, Netherlands; 4Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven
University of Technology, Eindhoven, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands
We
studied 92 prematurely born neonates (<31 weeks) at term equivalent age using
quantitative Fiber Tracking (FT), generated on 3.0T MRI. Patients were
divided into three groups, based on scoring of the conventional MRIs. Using
a general linear model, the effects of factor (group) and variables
(gestational age, birth weight and head circumference) were tested. For the
FA and ADC in corpus callosum fiber bundle, a significant relation with MR
group was observed. Furthermore, for
the corpus callosum, volume, Cl and length depended significantly on the
gestational age, suggesting an influence of age at birth on brain maturation.