Brain Volumes and Abnormalities in Adults Born Preterm at Very Low Birth Weight.
J Pediatr
; 246: 48-55.e7, 2022 07.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35301016
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
To assess radiographic brain abnormalities and investigate volumetric differences in adults born preterm at very low birth weight (<1500 g), using siblings as controls. STUDYDESIGN:
We recruited 79 adult same-sex sibling pairs with one born preterm at very low birth weight and the sibling at term. We acquired 3-T brain magnetic resonance imaging from 78 preterm participants and 72 siblings. A neuroradiologist, masked to participants' prematurity status, reviewed the images for parenchymal and structural abnormalities, and FreeSurfer software 6.0 was used to conduct volumetric analyses. Data were analyzed by linear mixed models.RESULTS:
We found more structural abnormalities in very low birth weight participants than in siblings (37% vs 13%). The most common finding was periventricular leukomalacia, present in 15% of very low birth weight participants and in 3% of siblings. The very low birth weight group had smaller absolute brain volumes (-0.4 SD) and, after adjusting for estimated intracranial volume, less gray matter (-0.2 SD), larger ventricles (1.5 SD), smaller thalami (-0.6 SD), caudate nuclei (-0.4 SD), right hippocampus (-0.4 SD), and left pallidum (-0.3 SD). We saw no volume differences in total white matter (-0.04 SD; 95% CI, -0.13 to 0.09).CONCLUSIONS:
Preterm very low birth weight adults had a higher prevalence of brain abnormalities than their term-born siblings. They also had smaller absolute brain volumes, less gray but not white matter, and smaller volumes in several gray matter structures.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Brain Diseases
/
White Matter
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Adult
/
Humans
/
Newborn
Language:
En
Journal:
J Pediatr
Year:
2022
Type:
Article