Abstract #1073

Evaluation of Cerebellum and Globus Palidus by in vivo Diffusion Tensor Imaging in a Rat Model of Bilirubin Encephalopathy

Dominik Maria Reisinger¹,², Jiangyang Zhang³, Joel Marx¹, Michael Porambo¹, Michael V. Johnston¹, Seyed Ali Fatemi¹,²

¹Neuroscience, Hugo W. Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger, Baltimore, MD, United States; ²Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; ³Radiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States

Despite the preventable nature of bilirubin encephalopathy, classically known as Kernicterus, cases continue to occur and remain a significant problem in newborns. A mutant rat model, referred to as the Gunn rat, features an enzyme deficiency resembling Crigler-Najjar syndrome of the human. Sulfadimethoxine will be used to exaggerate bilirubin encephalopathy. This way we tried to resemble Kernicterus in the newborn and further evaluated the model through acquiring high-resolution images of T2-weighted sequences as well as in vivo diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of the Gunn rat.