Evaluation of white matter myelination in preterm infants using DTI and MRI.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the features of white matter myelin development in preterm infants using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). METHODS: A total of 31 preterm infants with a gestational age of ≤32 weeks and a birth weight of 0.05). Compared with the full-term control group, the preterm groups with and without brain injury showed significantly higher ADC values of the posterior limb of the internal capsule, lenticular nucleus, occipital white matter, and frontal white matter (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: After brain injury, preterm infants tend to develop disorder or delay of white matter myelination in the posterior limb of the internal capsule. At a corrected full-term gestational age, the preterm infants with and without brain injury have a lower grade of maturity in periventricular white matter and grey matter than full-term infants.