DEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE & CHILD NEUROLOGY
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Visual functional magnetic resonance imaging of preterm infants WAYNE LEE 1 | ELIZABETH J DONNER 2 | REVITAL NOSSIN-MANOR 1 ,4 | HILARY EA WHYTE 4 ,5 JOHN G SLED 3 , 6 | MARGOT J TAYLOR 1 , 4
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1 Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON. 2 Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON. 3 Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON 4 Department of Neurosciences and Mental Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON. 5 Department of Neonatology, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON. 6 Department of Physiology & Experimental Medicine, Toronto Centre for Phenogenomics, Toronto, ON, Canada. Correspondence to Wayne Lee at Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Avenue, Toronto, ON, M5G 1X8, Canada. E-mail:
[email protected] This article is commented on by Arichi on page 680 of this issue.
PUBLICATION DATA
AIM The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of undertaking visual functional mag-
Accepted for publication 30th March 2012. Published online 21st June 2012.
METHOD Forty-seven infants born at less than 32 weeks gestational age (25 males, 22 females;
ABBREVIATIONS
BOLD Blood oxygen level-dependent fMRI Functional magnetic resonance imaging HRF Haemodynamic response function LOL Lateral occipital lobe MOL Medial occipital lobe NIRS Near-infrared spectroscopy
netic resonance imaging (fMRI) in very preterm children. mean (SD) age at birth 28.8wks [1.9]) were scanned using 1.5T MRI as part of a longitudinal neuroimaging study. These infants were scanned at preterm age (within 2wks of birth) and at term-equivalent age. Quantitative T2* data and fMRI in response to visual stimuli (flashing strobe) were acquired in this population. T2* values were compared at preterm age and at term-equivalent age using a two-tailed t-test. A general linear model was used to evaluate occipital lobe response to visual stimuli. RESULTS T2* values were significantly higher at preterm age than at term-equivalent age in both the medial and lateral occipital lobes (preterm infants: 187.2ms and 198.4ms respectively; term infants: 110.9ms and 133.2ms respectively; p
