[Brain alteration in neonates with congenital heart disease using apparent diffusion coefficient histograms]

Objective: To evaluate the value of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) histogram in neonatal brain alteration with congenital heart disease (CHD). Methods: MRIs of 60 neonates with CHD confirmed by echocardiography were retrospectively analyzed in Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from January 2012 to December 2016.Twenty-two MRIs of neonates with mild pneumonia or scalp hematoma who were suspicious of brain disease but normal MRI findings were enrolled as normal control.MRIcron and ImgJ softwares were used to acquire ADC histogram.The correlation between the gestational age and ADC histogram values were calculated respectively.Then t-test was used to analyze the differences of the histogram values and the diagnostic efficacy of different parameters was analyzed using the receiver operating characteristic curve. Results: The ADC values were significantly correlated with the gestational age (P<0.05). The 70th-90th ADC, skewness, kurtosis and variance were statistically significant (P<0.05). The area under the curve of the 90th ADC value was the largest at 0.698. Conclusions: The ADC histogram can quantify and objectively provide more diffusion information of brain tissue. It is a rapid and feasible quantitative method to identify brain changes in neonates with CHD.