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Multicenter Study
. 2009 Feb;29(2):258-67.
doi: 10.1002/jmri.21646.

T(2) relaxometry of normal pediatric brain development

Ilana R Leppert  1 , C Robert Almli, Robert C McKinstry, Robert V Mulkern, Carlo Pierpaoli, Michael J Rivkin, G Bruce Pike; Brain Development Cooperative Group
Collaborators, Affiliations
Multicenter Study

T(2) relaxometry of normal pediatric brain development

Ilana R Leppert et al. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2009 Feb.

Abstract

Purpose: To establish normal age-related changes in the magnetic resonance (MR) T(2) relaxation time constants of brain using data collected as part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) MRI Study of Normal Brain Development.

Materials and methods: This multicenter study of normal brain and behavior development provides both longitudinal and cross-sectional data, and has enabled us to investigate T(2) evolution in several brain regions in healthy children within the age range of birth through 4 years 5 months. Due to the multicenter nature of the study and the extended period of data collection, periodically scanned inanimate and human phantoms were used to assess intra- and intersite variability.

Results: The main finding of this work, based on over 340 scans, is the identification and parameterization of the monoexponential evolution of T(2) from birth through 4 years 5 months of age in various brain structures.

Conclusion: The exponentially decaying T(2) behavior is believed to reflect the rapid changes in water content as well as myelination during brain development. The data will become publicly available as part of a normative pediatric MRI and clinical/behavioral database, thereby providing a basis for comparison in studies assessing normal brain development, and studies of deviations due to various neurological, neuropsychiatric, and developmental disorders.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
ROI selection for ACR Phantom indicated by dotted lines (a) (ROI 1) Main compartment: 10mmol NiCl, 75mmol NaCl, T2~125ms (b) (ROI 2) Contrast vial: 20mmol NiCl, 15mmol NaCl, T2~70ms
Figure 2
Figure 2
ROI selection for (a) living phantom [1] ROI 1: frontal white matter; T2 ~ 80-90 ms [2] ROI 2: head of caudate nucleus; T2 ~ 90-100 ms (b) subjects (shown here on a T2-weighted image of a 52 month old subject) in white matter: [1] major forceps [2] minor forceps [3] genu of corpus callosum [4] splenium of corpus callosum and grey matter: [5] head of caudate nucleus [6] thalamus
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mono-exponential regression of T2 with age in selected regions of interest
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • T2 relaxometry of maturing brains.
    Ding XQ. Ding XQ. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2009 Oct;30(4):911; author reply 912. doi: 10.1002/jmri.21927. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2009. PMID: 19787741 No abstract available.

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