Bültmann Eva, Spineli Loukia M, Hartmann Hans, Lanfermann Heinrich
Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Institute for Biostatistics, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Brain Dev. 2018 Feb;40(2):85-93. doi: 10.1016/j.braindev.2017.07.011. Epub 2017 Aug 8.
To examine age-related changes in T relaxation times during infancy and childhood in order to assess T values obtained from routine MRI as a biomarker.
From our pool of clinical pediatric MRI examinations at 3T all patients with normal conventional MRI scans were retrospectively selected. Depending on their clinical findings the identified 99 patients (0-199months) were divided into 43 healthy controls and 56 diseased children with various clinical abnormalities (developmental delay, epilepsy, prematurity, and deafness). T maps based on routinely performed triple echo turbo spin echo sequences were created. T values were measured in 22 brain regions to determine age-related changes. We also investigated whether such changes differ between healthy and diseased children.
Age significantly reduced T relaxation times across all regions (p<0.05), but health status had no impact. With increasing age, T values decreased continuously, with declines faster over the first 10months and slower thereafter. Early rapid and later slow decline was similar in healthy and diseased groups.
Using T maps based on clinical MRI data we could determine age-related T relaxation times in 22 brain regions during infancy and childhood. Our data have relevance for future investigator independent T relaxation time measurements in determining whether T values are within the normal range or should be considered as potentially pathologic.
研究婴儿期和儿童期T弛豫时间的年龄相关变化，以评估从常规MRI获得的T值作为生物标志物的情况。
从我们3T临床儿科MRI检查库中，回顾性选择所有常规MRI扫描正常的患者。根据临床检查结果，将确定的99例患者（0 - 199个月）分为43例健康对照和56例患有各种临床异常（发育迟缓、癫痫、早产和耳聋）的患病儿童。基于常规执行的三回波快速自旋回波序列创建T图。在22个脑区测量T值以确定年龄相关变化。我们还研究了健康儿童和患病儿童之间这种变化是否存在差异。
年龄显著降低了所有区域的T弛豫时间（p<0.05），但健康状况没有影响。随着年龄增长，T值持续下降，在最初10个月下降更快，之后下降较慢。健康组和患病组早期快速下降和后期缓慢下降情况相似。
使用基于临床MRI数据的T图，我们可以确定婴儿期和儿童期22个脑区与年龄相关的T弛豫时间。我们的数据对于未来研究人员独立测量T弛豫时间以确定T值是否在正常范围内或是否应被视为潜在病理情况具有参考价值。
