Infants with perinatal hypoxic ischemia : feasibility of fiber tracking at birth and 3 months

The purpose of our study was to retrospectively investigate the feasibility of using fibertracking to detect disturbances in white matter development in newborns suffering fromhypoxic-ischemia, at birth and at the age of 3 months. Diffusion Tensor Images wereobtained from full-term newborns, 7 with normal MRI and 10 with pathology related toperinatal hypoxic-ischemia. All parents gave informed consent. Visualization of whitematter tracts was investigated using a volume tracing and quantification technique.Fiber tracking was useful to study the neonatal brain. Pathology resulted in differentfiber patterns, compared to normal. Frequently affected were the corona radiata fibers.