| Popis: |
Preterm infants show high risk for subsequent neurodevelopmental disability. Early developmental characterization of brain and neurobehavioral function is critical for identifying the high-risk infants, and thus guiding the necessary intervention. This paper aims to elaborate the early evolution of preterm sensorimotor function by exploring the postnatal age-related changes of brain white matter (WM) microstructure and neurobehavioral abilities during the neonatal stage. One hundred eighteen neonates without abnormality on MRI were included. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)-derived fractional anisotropy (FA) and neonatal neurobehavioral assessment were separately used to characterize the brain WM microstructure and neurobehavioral development levels. The scatterplot with linear fitting and Pearson correlation was used to investigate the relationships of WM FA and neurobehavioral scores (active tone and behavior) with postnatal age separately for preterm and term neonates. Here, OR (optical radiation), AR (auditory radiation), CST (corticospinal tract), PTR (posterior thalamic radiation) and thal-PSC (thalamus-primary somatosensory cortex) were selected as WMs of interest. Significant correlations of FA with postnatal age were found in preterm CST (P = 0.042), term OR (P = 0.018) and term PTR (P = 0.002). In contrast to term neonates, preterm showed an obviously higher correlation in CST (r = 0.29 vs 0.08), while lower correlations in visual, auditory and somatosensory-associated WMs. Similarly, relatively higher and lower correlations in preterm active tone (r = 0.48 vs 0.35) and behavioral scores (r = 0.36 vs 0.52) were respectively observed. Although being delayed, preterm neonates show a “catch-up” pattern toward term neonates in motor development in the newborn stage, suggesting early intervention may work well in motor function improvement. |
