Dataset Information

Development of Cortical Morphology Evaluated with Longitudinal MR Brain Images of Preterm Infants.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

The cerebral cortex develops rapidly in the last trimester of pregnancy. In preterm infants, brain development is very vulnerable because of their often complicated extra-uterine conditions. The aim of this study was to quantitatively describe cortical development in a cohort of 85 preterm infants with and without brain injury imaged at 30 and 40 weeks postmenstrual age (PMA).

Methods

In the acquired T2-weighted MR images, unmyelinated white matter (UWM), cortical grey matter (CoGM), and cerebrospinal fluid in the extracerebral space (CSF) were automatically segmented. Based on these segmentations, cortical descriptors evaluating volume, surface area, thickness, gyrification index, and global mean curvature were computed at both time points, for the whole brain, as well as for the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes separately. Additionally, visual scoring of brain abnormality was performed using a conventional scoring system at 40 weeks PMA.

Results

The evaluated descriptors showed larger change in the occipital lobes than in the other lobes. Moreover, the cortical descriptors showed an association with the abnormality scores: gyrification index and global mean curvature decreased, whereas, interestingly, median cortical thickness increased with increasing abnormality score. This was more pronounced at 40 weeks PMA than at 30 weeks PMA, suggesting that the period between 30 and 40 weeks PMA might provide a window of opportunity for intervention to prevent delay in cortical development.

SUBMITTER: Moeskops P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4498793 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Development of Cortical Morphology Evaluated with Longitudinal MR Brain Images of Preterm Infants.

Moeskops Pim P Benders Manon J N L MJ Kersbergen Karina J KJ Groenendaal Floris F de Vries Linda S LS Viergever Max A MA Išgum Ivana I

PloS one 20150710 7

<h4>Introduction</h4>The cerebral cortex develops rapidly in the last trimester of pregnancy. In preterm infants, brain development is very vulnerable because of their often complicated extra-uterine conditions. The aim of this study was to quantitatively describe cortical development in a cohort of 85 preterm infants with and without brain injury imaged at 30 and 40 weeks postmenstrual age (PMA).<h4>Methods</h4>In the acquired T2-weighted MR images, unmyelinated white matter (UWM), cortical gre ...[more]

PMID: 26161536

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Project description:IntroductionThe dynamic nature and complexity of the cellular events that take place during the last trimester of pregnancy make the developing cortex particularly vulnerable to perturbations. Abrupt interruption to normal gestation can lead to significant deviations to many of these processes, resulting in atypical trajectory of cortical maturation in preterm birth survivors.MethodsWe sought to first map typical cortical micro- and macrostructure development using invivo MRI in a large sample of healthy term-born infants scanned after birth (n = 259). Then we offer a comprehensive characterization of the cortical consequences of preterm birth in 76 preterm infants scanned at term-equivalent age (37-44 weeks postmenstrual age). We describe the group-average atypicality, the heterogeneity across individual preterm infants, and relate individual deviations from normative development to age at birth and neurodevelopment at 18 months.ResultsIn the term-born neonatal brain, we observed heterogeneous and regionally specific associations between age at scan and measures of cortical morphology and microstructure, including rapid surface expansion, greater cortical thickness, lower cortical anisotropy and higher neurite orientation dispersion. By term-equivalent age, preterm infants had on average increased cortical tissue water content and reduced neurite density index in the posterior parts of the cortex, and greater cortical thickness anteriorly compared to term-born infants. While individual preterm infants were more likely to show extreme deviations (over 3.1 standard deviations) from normative cortical maturation compared to term-born infants, these extreme deviations were highly variable and showed very little spatial overlap between individuals. Measures of regional cortical development were associated with age at birth, but not with neurodevelopment at 18 months.ConclusionWe showed that preterm birth alters cortical micro- and macrostructural maturation near the time of full-term birth. Deviations from normative development were highly variable between individual preterm infants.

Project description:Sulcal pits, the locally deepest points in sulci of the highly convoluted and variable cerebral cortex, are found to be spatially consistent across human adult individuals. It is suggested that sulcal pits are genetically controlled and have close relationships with functional areas. To date, the existing imaging studies of sulcal pits are mainly focused on adult brains, yet little is known about the spatial distribution and temporal development of sulcal pits in the first 2 years of life, which is the most dynamic and critical period of postnatal brain development. Studying sulcal pits during this period would greatly enrich our limited understandings of the origins and developmental trajectories of sulcal pits, and would also provide important insights into many neurodevelopmental disorders associated with abnormal cortical foldings. In this paper, by using surface-based morphometry, for the first time, we systemically investigated the spatial distribution and temporal development of sulcal pits in major cortical sulci from 73 healthy infants, each with three longitudinal 3T MR scans at term birth, 1 year, and 2 years of age. Our results suggest that the spatially consistent distributions of sulcal pits in major sulci across individuals have already existed at term birth and this spatial distribution pattern keeps relatively stable in the first 2 years of life, despite that the cerebral cortex expands dramatically and the sulcal depth increases considerably during this period. Specially, the depth of sulcal pits increases regionally heterogeneously, with more rapid growth in the high-order association cortex, including the prefrontal and temporal cortices, than the sensorimotor cortex in the first 2 years of life. Meanwhile, our results also suggest that there exist hemispheric asymmetries of the spatial distributions of sulcal pits in several cortical regions, such as the central, superior temporal and postcentral sulci, consistently from birth to 2 years of age, which likely has close relationships with the lateralization of brain functions of these regions. This study provides detailed insights into the spatial distribution and temporal development of deep sulcal landmarks in infants.

Dataset Information

Development of Cortical Morphology Evaluated with Longitudinal MR Brain Images of Preterm Infants.

Introduction

Methods

Results

Publications

Development of Cortical Morphology Evaluated with Longitudinal MR Brain Images of Preterm Infants.

Similar Datasets

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