Investigating the Spatial Folding Pattern of Very Preterm Neonatal Cortex Scanned at Term-Equivalent Age

Andrew Melbourne¹, Giles S. Kendall², Manuel J. Cardoso¹, Nicola J. Robertson², Neil Marlow², Sebastien Ourselin¹

MRI has revealed a common imaging phenotype which has stimulated efforts to develop markers of outcome to guide mitigating treatment or therapy. This work analyses the cortical surface properties of 92 very preterm babies (born prior to 32 weeks gestational age (GA)). High-resolution T1-weighted term-equivalent MRI of very preterm neonates are segmented and the grey/white matter interface extracted. By correlating the cortical surface properties both globally and for each lobe we can investigate the spatial pattern of cortical folding. This reveals consistent spatial patterns in the cortical surface pattern.