Characterization of germinal matrix hemorrhage in extremely premature infants: recognition of posterior location and diagnostic pitfalls

Abstract

Background: Traditionally, descriptions of germinal matrix hemorrhage (GMH), derived from observations in preterm and very preterm infants, indicate its location at the caudothalamic grooves. However, before the germinal matrix begins to recede at approximately 28 weeks' gestational age (GA), it extends along the floor of the lateral ventricles far posterior to the caudothalamic grooves. Germinal matrix-intraventricular hemorrhage (GMH-IVH) can occur along any site from which the germinal matrix has not yet involuted. Therefore, as current advances in neonatology have allowed the routine survival of extremely preterm infants as young as 23 weeks' GA, postnatal GMH-IVH can occur in previously undescribed locations. Hemorrhage in the more posterior GMH on head ultrasound, if unrecognized, may lead to errors in diagnosis and mislocalization of this injury to the periventricular white matter or lateral walls of the lateral ventricles instead of to the subependyma, where it is in fact located.

Objective: Our aim is to describe posterior GMH in extremely premature infants, including its characteristic imaging appearance and potential pitfalls in diagnosis.

Materials and methods: Over a 5-year period, all consecutive extremely preterm infants of 27 weeks' GA or less who developed GMH-IVH of any grade were included. A consecutive group of 100 very preterm infants of 31 weeks' GA with a GMH-IVH of any grade served as controls.

Results: In 106 extremely preterm neonates (mean GA: 25 weeks, range: 23.1-26.6 weeks) with 212 potential lateral ventricular germinal matrix bleeding sites, 159 sites had bleeds. In 70/159 (44%), the GMH-IVH was located posterior to the caudothalamic grooves and the foramina of Monro, 52 (32.7%) were both anterior and posterior and 21 (13.2%) were exclusively anterior. In 16 ventricles with intraventricular hemorrhage, an origin site in the germinal matrix could not be determined. In the control population of very preterm infants, all hemorrhages were at the anterior caudothalamic grooves and 95% were grade I.

Conclusion: Unlike the older very preterm and moderately preterm infants that form the basis of our GMH-IVH description and classification, the extremely preterm infants now routinely surviving have a more fetal pattern of germinal matrix distribution, which is reflected in a different distribution and size of germinal matrix injury. We report the postnatal occurrence of subependymal GMH-IVH in extremely preterm infants in these more primitive, posterior locations, its potential imaging pitfalls and sonographic findings.

Keywords: Germinal matrix hemorrhage; Head; Infants; Intraparenchymal hemorrhage; Intraventricular hemorrhage; Prematurity; Ultrasound.