Automated Quantification of Diffuse White Matter Abnormalities in Very Preterm Infants Predicts Language and Cognitive Development at Two Years of Age

The developmental significance of the frequently encountered diffuse white matter signal abnormality (WMSA) findings on term MRI in very preterm infants remains in question. Guided with our very preterm infant brain atlas, we objectively quantified WMSA on conventional T2-weighted MRI at around term-equivalent age. We demonstrated automatically detected WMSA volume to be a significant predictor of cognitive and language development at 2 years of age. Our findings support the use of objective automated techniques to accurately quantify the lesion burden in perinatal-neonatal brain injury. Our work will facilitate population-based studies to more accurately characterize WMSAs long-term sequelae.

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