Division of Newborn Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, United States.
Department of Radiology, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA 02129, United States.
Cereb Cortex. 2024 Apr 1;34(4). doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhae117.
Developmental changes that occur before birth are thought to be associated with the development of autism spectrum disorders. Identifying anatomical predictors of early brain development may contribute to our understanding of the neurobiology of autism spectrum disorders and allow for earlier and more effective identification and treatment of autism spectrum disorders. In this study, we used retrospective clinical brain magnetic resonance imaging data from fetuses who were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders later in life (prospective autism spectrum disorders) in order to identify the earliest magnetic resonance imaging-based regional volumetric biomarkers. Our results showed that magnetic resonance imaging-based autism spectrum disorder biomarkers can be found as early as in the fetal period and suggested that the increased volume of the insular cortex may be the most promising magnetic resonance imaging-based fetal biomarker for the future emergence of autism spectrum disorders, along with some additional, potentially useful changes in regional volumes and hemispheric asymmetries.
据认为，出生前发生的发育变化与自闭症谱系障碍的发展有关。确定早期大脑发育的解剖学预测因子可能有助于我们理解自闭症谱系障碍的神经生物学，并能够更早、更有效地识别和治疗自闭症谱系障碍。在这项研究中，我们使用了以后被诊断为自闭症谱系障碍的胎儿的回顾性临床脑磁共振成像数据（前瞻性自闭症谱系障碍），以确定最早的基于磁共振成像的区域性容积生物标志物。我们的研究结果表明，基于磁共振成像的自闭症谱系障碍生物标志物早在胎儿期就可以发现，并表明岛叶皮层体积的增加可能是自闭症谱系障碍未来出现的最有前途的基于磁共振成像的胎儿生物标志物，同时还存在一些区域性容积和半球不对称性的潜在有用变化。
