Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy lactate/N-acetylaspartate within 2 weeks of birth accurately predicts 2-year motor, cognitive and language outcomes in neonatal encephalopathy after therapeutic hypothermia

OBJECTIVE: H MRS Lac/NAA for the prediction of Bayley III outcomes at 2 years using optimised metabolite fitting (Tarquin) with threonine and total NAA; (2) prediction of motor outcome with diffusion-weighted MRI; (3) BGT Lac/NAA correlation with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) MRI score. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: H MRS at 3T on day 2-14 (median day 5). MRIs were scored. Bayley III was assessed at 24 (22-26) months. RESULTS: /s) up to day 9 was 72% and 100% and fractional anisotropy (threshold 0.198) was 39% and 94%, respectively. Lac/NAA correlated with BGT injury on NICHD scores (2A, 2B, 3). CONCLUSION: H MRS at 3T within 14 days accurately predicts 2-year motor, cognitive and language outcome and may be a marker directing decisions for therapies after cooling.