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Neuroquantification enhances the radiological evaluation of term neonatal hypoxic-ischaemic cerebral injuries


Shalendra K. Misser
Nobuhle Mchunu
Jan W. Lotz
Lisa Kjonigsen
Aziz Ulug
Moherndran Archary

Abstract

Background: Injury patterns in hypoxic-ischaemic brain injury (HIBI) are well recognised but there are few studies evaluating cerebral  injury using neuroquantification models.


Objectives: Quantification of brain volumes in a group of patients with clinically determined cerebral palsy.


Method: In this retrospective  study, 297 children with cerebral palsy were imaged for suspected HIBI with analysis of various cerebral substrates. Of  these, 96 children over the age of 3 years with a clinical diagnosis of cerebral palsy and abnormal MRI findings underwent volumetric  analyses using the NeuroQuant® software solution. The spectrum of volumetric changes and the differences between the various  subtypes (and individual subgroups) of HIBI were compared.


Results: Compared with the available normative NeuroQuant® database,  the average intracranial volume was reduced to the 1st percentile in all patient groups (p < 0.001). Statistically significant differences were  observed among the types and subgroups of HIBI. Further substrate volume reductions were identified and described involving the  thalami, brainstem, hippocampi, putamina and amygdala. The combined volumes of five regions of interest (frontal pole, putamen,  hippocampus, brainstem and paracentral lobule) were consistently reduced in the Rolandic basal ganglia-thalamus (RBGT) subtype.  


Conclusion: This study determined a quantifiable reduction of intracranial volume in all subtypes of HIBI and predictable selective  cerebral substrate volume reduction in subtypes and subgroups. In the RBGT subtype, a key combination of five substrate injuries was consistently noted, and thalamic, occipital lobe and brainstem volume reduction was also significant when compared to the watershed  subtype.


Contribution: This study demonstrates the value of integrating an artificial intelligence programme into the radiologists’  armamentarium serving to quantify brain injuries more accurately in HIBI. Going forward this will be an inevitable evolution of daily  radiology practice in many fields of medicine, and it would be beneficial for radiologists to embrace these technological innovations.  


Journal Identifiers


eISSN: 2078-6778
print ISSN: 1027-202X