Reduced cerebellar diameter in very preterm infants with abnormal general movements

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Pediatrics
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Abnormal General Movements (GMs) in infancy are linked to future neuromotor deficits and white matter issues on MRI.
• Previous research has not fully defined other structural brain correlates of abnormal GMs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate brain-metrics (linear MRI measurements of brain volumes) at term as predictors of abnormal GMs at 1 and 3 months corrected age in preterm infants.
• To test the hypothesis that reduced brain-metrics in motor areas (cerebellum, parietal lobes) would correlate with abnormal GMs.

Main Methods:

• Eighty-three preterm infants (<30 weeks gestational age) underwent MRI at term-equivalent age.
• MRI assessed white matter abnormality and brain-metrics (bifrontal, biparietal, lateral ventricles, transverse cerebellar diameters, inter-hemispheric distance).
• General Movements (GMs) were assessed from video at 1 and 3 months corrected age.

Main Results:

• At 1 month corrected age, 63% of infants had abnormal GMs with no brain-metric associations.
• At 3 months corrected age, 23% had abnormal GMs; reduced bifrontal, biparietal, cerebellar diameters, and enlarged lateral ventricles were associated with increased GM abnormality risk.
• Only reduced cerebellar transverse diameter remained predictive of abnormal GMs at 3 months after controlling for white matter abnormality and intraventricular hemorrhage.

Conclusions:

• Reduced cerebellar diameter at term-equivalent age is a significant predictor of abnormal General Movements (GMs) at 3 months corrected age.
• This association is independent of white matter abnormalities and intraventricular hemorrhage, highlighting the cerebellum's role.