The variation of white matter tract in neonates with mild hypoxic-ischemic injury:a diffusion tensor image analysis by tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS)

Abstract

The aim of this study is to use tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) to test the voxel-wise differences in fractional anisotropy (FA), 1, 2, 3 between normal and mild hypoxic-ischemic (HI) neonatal brains. 41 full term neonates (17 neonates with mild HI injury, 24 neonates as normal control,) and 31 preterm neonates (11 neonates with mild HI injury, 20 neonates as normal control) underwent T1 weighted images (T1WIs), T2 weighted images (T2WIs) and diffusion tensor image (DTI) within 28 days after birth. The results of TBSS mainly showed significantly decreased FA and increased 2, 3 in multiple white matter tracts (p<0.05). These differences of DTI indexes between the mild HI and normal neonates were mainly located in cerebral peduncle (CP), posterior limb of internal capsule (PLIC) and corona radiata (CR) both in full term and preterm groups. Moreover, the additional regions with above changes of DTI indexes in full term neonates were exhibited in external capsule (EC) and splenium of the corpus callosum (SCC) mainly. This is the first study to explore white matter injury in both preterm and term neonatal brains with mild HI injury by using TBSS for DTI data analyzing. TBSS, as an objective and sensitive method, can reveal multiple white matter microstructural abnormalities in mild HI neonatal brains.