Mild hypoxic-ischemic injury in the neonatal rat brain: longitudinal evaluation of the white matter using diffusion tensor MR imaging

Abstract

We evaluated longitudinally mild hypoxic-ischemic (HI) induced white matter (WM) damage in a neonatal rat model using DTI and correlated the DTI indices with histological evaluations. Results showed significantly decreased FA and increased ¦Ë¡Í in the injured WM reflected dysmyelination. The longitudinal changes of increasing FA, decreasing ¦Ë¡Í, and no change in ¦Ë// in both injured and control WM suggests continued myelination. Furthermore, differences in FA and ¦Ë¡Í between injured and control WM decreased longitudinally. Our results demonstrated that mild HI induced WM damage continues to mature with partial recovery post-HI, and this could be reflected by DTI in vivo.