Background: This retrospective study aims to assess the added diagnostic utility and clinical value of a 3-Tesla neonatal brain magnetic resonance imaging after obtaining a 1-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging within the neonatal intensive care unit.
Methods: A cohort of 34 infants had an initial 1-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging and repeat imaging within 14 days in a 3-Tesla scanner. All infants were admitted to the level III neonatal intensive care unit at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and all images were interpreted by pediatric neuroradiologists.
Background: Limited serial neuroimaging studies use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to define the evolution of hypoxic-ischemic insults to the brain of term infants and encompass both the primary injury and its secondary impact on cerebral development. The optimal timing of MRI to fully evaluate the impact of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy on brain development and associated neurodevelopmental sequelae remains unknown.
Methods: Goals: (a) review literature related to serial neuroimaging in term infants with HIE; (b) describe pilot data in two infants with HIE treated with therapeutic hypothermia who had a brain injury at day 3-5 and underwent four additional MRIs over the next 12 weeks of life and developmental evaluation at 24 months of age.