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Updated: Feb 22, 2026
Early Pathological and Magnetic Resonance Detection of Cerebral Injury Using a Rat Model of Neonatal Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy
Published on: October 28, 2022
Prognostic Value of Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy: A Meta-analysis
Iván Sánchez Fernández1,2, J Leon Morales-Quezada3, Samuel Law4
11 Division of Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology, Department of Neurology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Objective:
To quantify the prognostic value of neonatal brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.
Methods:
Meta-analysis of studies with ≥35-week neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy who underwent brain MRI within age 4 weeks and had neurodevelopmental follow-up for at least 12 months.
Results:
An abnormal neonatal brain MRI was more frequent among patients with unfavorable neurodevelopmental outcome: odds ratio = 18.2 (95% confidence interval: 9.4-34.9), P <.0001. The prognostic value of neonatal brain MRI in moderate hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy had an odds ratio of 17.7 (95% confidence interval: 5.3-59.3) and in severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, the odds ratio was 125.0 (95% confidence interval: 2.0-7917.1). Therapeutic hypothermia did not change the prognostic value of neonatal brain MRI (odds ratio for hypothermia, 14.0 [95% confidence interval: 3.1-63.6], vs no hypothermia, 18.1 [95% confidence interval: 10.0-33.1], P = .7525).
Conclusion:
Neonatal brain MRI provides prognostic information on outcome beyond early infancy in hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy and therapeutic hypothermia does not change its prognostic value.
