Prematurity Affects Cortical Maturation in Early Childhood

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• 作者：John P. Phillips ; MD^a ; ^b ; ^{jphillips@mrn.org} ; Erica Q. Montague ; PhD^c ; Miranda Aragon^b ; Jean R. Lowe ; PhD^d ; Ronald M. Schrader ; PhD^e ; Robin K. Ohls ; MD^d ; Arvind Caprihan ; PhD^b
• 刊名：Pediatric Neurology
• 出版年：2011
• 出版时间：October, 2011
• 年：2011
• 卷：45
• 期：4
• 页码：213-219
• 全文大小：1K

文摘

Cortical development in the first years of age for children with very low birth weight is not well characterized. We obtained high-resolution structural magnetic resonance images from children aged 18-22 months (16 very low birth weight/7 term) and 3-4 years (12 very low birth weight/8 term). Cortical surface area and thickness of the brain were assessed using the FreeSurfer data analysis program, and manually inspected for accuracy. For children with very low birth weight, a negative correlation was evident between birth weight and cortical thickness at 18-22 months (P?= 0.04), and a positive correlation with cortical surface area at 3-4 years (P?= 0.02). Between groups, children with very low birth weight demonstrated a consistent trend for thicker cortices and reduced surface area, compared with control term children (18-22 month surface area, P?= 0.08; thickness, P?= 0.11; 3-4 year surface area, P?= 0.73; thickness, P?= 0.14). The normal processes of cortical thinning and surface area expansion in the first several years of age may be delayed by premature delivery, a potentially more prominent effect with greater degrees of prematurity.