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

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 ( < 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.