Abstract #4383

More Than Meets the Eye: Age and Pathology-Related MTR Changes in Very Preterm Brains

Andrew David Chung¹, Revital Nossin-Manor^1,2, Hilary E. A. Whyte^2,3, Margot J. Taylor^1,2, Manohar M. Shroff¹, John G. Sled^4,5

¹Diagnostic Imaging, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada; ²Neurosciences & Mental Health, Research Institute, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada; ³Neonatology, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada; ⁴Physiology Experimental Medicine, Research Institute, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada; ⁵Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Our study compared MTR values of the basal ganglia (BG), thalami, and pons in the very preterm (<32 weeks GA) brain. Forty-four infants were separated into four groups based on radiological findings on conventional MR scans: normal, WM-injury, Grade I GMH + WM-injury, Grade II GMH + WM-injury. MTR increased with GA in both the BG and thalami in the normal and WM-injury groups. This relation was not seen in the pons in any of the groups. In the BG, the normal group demonstrated consistently higher MTR values than the WM-injury group, indicating GM effects not detected on conventional MRI.