Prediction of neurodevelopmental outcome after hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy treated with hypothermia by diffusion tensor imaging analyzed using tract-based spatial statistics.

Introduction: Objective biomarkers are needed to assess neuroprotective therapies after perinatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). We tested the hypothesis that, in infants who underwent therapeutic hypothermia after perinatal HIE, neurodevelopmental performance was predicted by fractional anisotropy (FA) values in the white matter (WM) on early diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) as assessed by means of tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS).

Methods: We studied 43 term infants with HIE.