Gestational Age at Birth and Brain White Matter Development in Term-Born Infants and Children.

ABSTRACT:

Background and purpose

Studies on infants and children born preterm have shown that adequate gestational length is critical for brain white matter development. Less is known regarding how variations in gestational age at birth in term infants and children affect white matter development, which was evaluated in this study.

Materials and methods

Using DTI tract-based spatial statistics methods, we evaluated white matter microstructures in 2 groups of term-born (≥37 weeks of gestation) healthy subjects: 2-week-old infants (n = 44) and 8-year-old children (n = 63). DTI parameters including fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity were calculated by voxelwise and ROI methods and were correlated with gestational age at birth,

SUBMITTER: Ou X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7963722 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature