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. 2024 Aug 14:15:1427273.
doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1427273. eCollection 2024.

Thalamic volume in very preterm infants: associations with severe brain injury and neurodevelopmental outcome at two years

Emiliano Trimarco  1 , Bahram Jafrasteh  1 , Natalia Jiménez-Luque  1 , Yolanda Marín Almagro  1 , Macarena Román Ruiz  1 , Manuel Lubián Gutiérrez  1   2 , Estefanía Ruiz González  1   2 , Antonio Segado Arenas  1   2 , Simón Pedro Lubián-López  1   2 , Isabel Benavente-Fernández  1   2   3
Affiliations

Thalamic volume in very preterm infants: associations with severe brain injury and neurodevelopmental outcome at two years

Emiliano Trimarco et al. Front Neurol. .

Abstract

Introduction: Several studies demonstrate the relationship between preterm birth and a reduced thalamus volume at term-equivalent age. In contrast, this study aims to investigate the link between the thalamic growth trajectory during the early postnatal period and neurodevelopment at two years of age.

Methods: Thalamic volume was extracted from 84 early MRI scans at postmenstrual age of 32.33 (± 2.63) weeks and 93 term-equivalent age MRI scans at postmenstrual age of 42.05 (± 3.33) weeks of 116 very preterm infants (56% male) with gestational age at birth of 29.32 (± 2.28) weeks and a birth weight of 1158.92 (± 348.59) grams. Cognitive, motor, and language outcomes at two years of age were assessed with Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development Third Edition. Bivariate analysis was used to describe the clinical variables according to neurodevelopmental outcomes and multilevel linear regression models were used to examine the impact of these variables on thalamic volume and its relationship with neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Results: The results suggest an association between severe brain injury and thalamic growth trajectory (β coef = -0.611; p < 0.001). Moreover, thalamic growth trajectory during early postnatal life was associated with the three subscale scores of the neurodevelopmental assessment (cognitive: β coef = 6.297; p = 0.004; motor: β coef = 7.283; p = 0.001; language: β coeficient = 9.053; p = 0.002).

Discussion: These findings highlight (i) the impact of severe brain injury on thalamic growth trajectory during early extrauterine life after preterm birth and (ii) the relationship of thalamic growth trajectory with cognitive, motor, and language outcomes.

Keywords: MRI; brain injury; neurodevelopment; preterm infants; thalamus.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A, B) Flow diagram of the study population. VPI, Very Preterm Infants; MRI, Magnetic Resonance Image; BSITD-III, Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition; TEA, Term-Equivalent Age.
Figure 2
Figure 2
T1w images (A–C) with thalamus segmentation (B–D) into coronal (1), sagittal (2), and axial planes (3). The scans are from a healthy very preterm infant of 29.14 weeks of gestational age. The early scan (A, B) shows a right thalamus volume (blue) of 1.75 cm3 and a left thalamus volume (orange) of 1.80 cm3 at 27.57 weeks of postmenstrual age while the TEA scan (C, D) shows a right thalamus volume (blue) of 4.45 cm3 and a left thalamus volume (orange) of 4.47 cm3 at 43.14 weeks of postmenstrual age.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Thalamic growth trajectory in VPI with severe brain injury (red points) and those without severe brain injury (blue points).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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