View article

Background the emerging technique of diffusion tractography offers the opportunity to visualise white matter tracts in vivo. The aims of this study were to i. visualise and quantify developmental changes in the corticospinal tracts in the preterm brain using diffusion tractography ii. determine whether abnormalities in tract development associated with focal pathology can be identified in these infants.

Methods Subjects: High resolution DTI was obtained on 21 preterm infants who were born at a median (range) gestational age (GA) of 29 (26-34) weeks and imaged at a median post-menstrual age (PMA) of 38 (30-44) weeks. 17 infants had no evidence of abnormality on MRI and 4 infants had focal lesions. Magnetic resonance imaging: MRI was performed on a 3 Tesla Philips MR system. DTI was acquired in 15 non-colinear directions with ab value of 750 s/mm2 and an image voxel size of 1.75 x 1.75 x 2 mm3 …