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. 2019 Jan 15:185:349-360.
doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.10.031. Epub 2018 Oct 10.

Neonate and infant brain development from birth to 2 years assessed using MRI-based quantitative susceptibility mapping

Yuyao Zhang  1 , Jingjing Shi  2 , Hongjiang Wei  3 , Victor Han  3 , Wen-Zhen Zhu  4 , Chunlei Liu  5
Affiliations

Neonate and infant brain development from birth to 2 years assessed using MRI-based quantitative susceptibility mapping

Yuyao Zhang et al. Neuroimage. .

Abstract

The human brain rapidly develops during the first two years following birth. Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) provides information of iron and myelin variations. It is considered to be a valuable tool for studying brain development in early life. In the present work, QSM is performed on neonates, 1-year and 2-year old infants, as well as a group of adults for the purpose of reference. Age-specific templates representing common brain structures are built for each age group. The neonate and infant QSM templates have shown some unique findings compared to conventional T1w and T2w imaging techniques. The contrast between the gray and white matters on the QSM images did not change through brain development from neonate to adult. A linear correlation was found between brain myelination determined in this study and the microscopic myelin degree determined by a previous autopsy study. Also, the magnetic susceptibility values of the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) exhibit a gradually decreasing trend from birth to 2 years old and to adulthood. The findings suggest that the macromolecular content, myelin, and iron may play the most important contributing factors for the magnetic susceptibility of neonate and infant brain. QSM can be a powerful means to study early brain development and related pathologies that involve alterations in macromolecular content, iron, or brain myelination.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Group-wise registration for average QSM template construction.
For each age-specific group, individual susceptibility maps (denoted by blue hexagons) are combined as in eq. (1) to generate the template susceptibility map (denoted by red circular) iteratively. Each loop refines the QSM template.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Comparison of (a) T1w templates, (b) R2* templates and (c) susceptibility map templates for neonates, 1-year-old infants, 2-year-old infants and adults.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. Regression analysis indicating susceptibility χ [ppb] and R2* [s−1] development pattern with age in neonate, infant and adult brains.
The magnetic susceptibility curves in DGM (red line) and WM (purple dotted line) regions are plotted as a function of monthly gestation age respectively (top row). The R2* relaxation rate in DGM (red line) and WM (purple dotted line) regions are plotted as a function of monthly gestation age respectively (bottom row).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.. Susceptibility development correlated with myelination degree in white matter fiber bundles for neonates and infants up to 2 years old. (a) Linear regression line indicating susceptibility vs myelination degree. (b) Susceptibility evolution in corpus callosum.
The purple arrows pointed to the CC region for each age-specific template. Abbreviations: BCC, body corpus callosum; SCC, splenium corpus callosum; EC, external capsule; MCP, middle cerebellar peduncle; PTR, posterior thalamic radiation; CR, corona radiata; PCT, pontine crossing tract; ML, medial lemniscus; CST, corticospinal tract; PLIC, posterior limb of internal capsule; CP: cerebral peduncle.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.. Comparison of QSM color-coded maps for neonates, 1-year-old infants, 2-year-old infants and adults.
First row: the axial section. The rectangular box in the neonatal brain presents the paramagnetic susceptibility in the frontal lobe white matter; the dotted-line rectangular boxes indicate the diamagnetic susceptibility in the temporal lobe and occipital lobe white matter. The neonatal brain segmentation map is indicated in Fig. S2 in the supplemental material. The black arrows indicate posterior thalamic radiation (PTR), the magenta dotted arrows show the posterior limb of internal capsule (PLIC), and the red dotted arrows point to the external capsule (EC). Bottom row: the coronal section. The magenta arrows show the cortical spinal track (CST).
Figure 6.
Figure 6.. Comparison of R2* and QSM templates for neonates, 1-year-old infants, 2-year-old infants and adults in basal ganglia.
Top two rows: the R2* map and QSM axial section in basal ganglia indicating PT (putamen), GP (globus pallidus) and CN (caudate nucleus). Bottom two rows: Profile lines for the normalized R2* (blue dotted lines) and QSM (red lines) signal, which are extracted from each age-specific template as the white dotted line denoted (in top two rows).
Figure 7.
Figure 7.
Comparison of T1w and susceptibility maps (grey level map in middle row and color-coded map in bottom row) for neonates, 1-year-old infants, 2-year-old infants and adults. The CSF susceptibility shows gradual decrease in neonate and infant brains and is much higher than that of the adult brains.
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