Evaluation of symmetrical increased echogenicity of bilateral caudothalamic grooves detected on cranial ultrasonography by comparing with susceptibility-weighted imaging.

Objective: To assess symmetrical increased echogenicity of bilateral caudothalamic grooves (SIEBCG) detected on newborn cranial ultrasonography (CUS) using magnetic resonance susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI).

Materials And Methods: A total of 14 newborns (8 girls; 12 premature with mean gestational age of 30 weeks and 5 days, 2 mature) who were detected to have SIEBCG on routine serial CUS and underwent cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were recruited for the study. The cranial MRI examinations including SWI acquired on the same day of SIEBCG detection and serial CUS to assess the progress of SIEBCG lesions in the following 6 month period were retrospectively evaluated and compared for the presence of germinal matrix hemorrhage.

Results: On SWI, solely one patient (7, 1%) had signal alteration on caudothalamic groove compatible with grade 1 germinal matrix hemorrhage. Two patients (14, 2%) had parenchymal (on cerebellar and parietal white matter) millimetric hemorrhagic foci. Seven patients (50%) had signs of presumptive hypoxic insult including hyperintense dots on centrum semiovale and periventricular white matter in five, and increased signal intensity on the globus pallidi in two, on T1-weighted images. Four patients (28, 6%) had normal findings. Of these, 10 patients became normal on follow-up CUS at postterm-equivalent age, whereas four were missing.

Conclusion: Symmetrical increased echogenicity of bilateral caudothalamic grooves seen on newborn CUS may be the indicator of other pathologies as ischemic insult or focal parenchymal hemorrhage. In the presence of SIEBCG, further examination with SWI should be performed.