Purpose: Cerebellar maturation is critical for neonatal development and is often disrupted during preterm birth.This study used magnetic resonance (MR) fingerprinting to quantify age-related cerebellar changes and determine the specific impact of prematurity.Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included 31 neonates (22 preterm and 9 term; 17 males; mean gestational age, 249.0 20.7 days) who underwent brain MRI, including 2D multi-slice MR fingerprinting with 7 minutes 5 seconds scan time at termequivalent age.The T1 and T2 relaxation times were measured in the middle cerebellar peduncle, dentate nucleus, and cerebellar cortex using MR fingerprinting-derived T1 and T2 maps.Group differences and correlations with postmenstrual age were assessed using independent t-tests and Pearson's correlation analysis.Results: Preterm neonates had longer T1 and T2 relaxation times in the middle cerebellar peduncle, dentate nucleus, and cerebellar cortex than did term neonates.In the middle cerebellar peduncle, T1 times were 1918 88 ms vs. 1760 68 ms (p < 0.001), and T2 times were 103 8 ms vs. 97 4 ms (p < 0.05).In the dentate nucleus, the T1 times were 2316 174 ms vs. 1976 144 ms (p < 0.001), and the T2 times were 141 18 ms vs. 122 11 ms (p < 0.05).In the cerebellar cortex, T1 was 2460 98 ms vs. 2192 127 ms (p < 0.001), and T2 was 152 14 ms vs. 127 23 ms (p < 0.05).Both T1 and T2 times negatively correlated with postmenstrual age across all regions (r ranged from -0.761 to -0.617, all p < 0.001).Prolonged relaxation times were associated with prematurity (odds ratio range: 1.03 to 1.16, p < 0.05). Conclusion:The MR fingerprinting-derived T1 and T2 relaxation times showed developmental changes with postmenstrual age and were higher in preterm neonates, indicating immaturity.
Choi et al. (2026) studied this question.