School of Information and Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China.
Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Neuroimage. 2019 Jan 15;185:349-360. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.10.031. Epub 2018 Oct 10.
The human brain rapidly develops during the first two years following birth. Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) provides information of iron and myelin variations. It is considered to be a valuable tool for studying brain development in early life. In the present work, QSM is performed on neonates, 1-year and 2-year old infants, as well as a group of adults for the purpose of reference. Age-specific templates representing common brain structures are built for each age group. The neonate and infant QSM templates have shown some unique findings compared to conventional T1w and T2w imaging techniques. The contrast between the gray and white matters on the QSM images did not change through brain development from neonate to adult. A linear correlation was found between brain myelination determined in this study and the microscopic myelin degree determined by a previous autopsy study. Also, the magnetic susceptibility values of the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) exhibit a gradually decreasing trend from birth to 2 years old and to adulthood. The findings suggest that the macromolecular content, myelin, and iron may play the most important contributing factors for the magnetic susceptibility of neonate and infant brain. QSM can be a powerful means to study early brain development and related pathologies that involve alterations in macromolecular content, iron, or brain myelination.
人类大脑在出生后的头两年内迅速发育。定量磁化率映射（QSM）提供了铁和髓鞘变化的信息。它被认为是研究早期生命中大脑发育的一种有价值的工具。在本工作中，对新生儿、1 岁和 2 岁婴儿以及一组成年人进行了 QSM 以作为参考。为每个年龄组构建了代表常见脑结构的特定年龄模板。与传统的 T1w 和 T2w 成像技术相比，新生儿和婴儿的 QSM 模板显示出一些独特的发现。从新生儿到成年人，脑发育过程中，灰质和白质之间的对比并未改变。研究发现，本研究中确定的脑髓鞘与先前尸检研究确定的微观髓鞘程度之间存在线性相关性。此外，脑脊液（CSF）的磁化率值从出生到 2 岁到成年呈逐渐下降趋势。这些发现表明，大分子含量、髓鞘和铁可能是新生儿和婴儿大脑磁化率的最重要贡献因素。QSM 可以成为研究早期大脑发育和涉及大分子含量、铁或脑髓鞘变化的相关病理的有力手段。
