Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine age-related changes in apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) during infancy and childhood using routine MRI data.
Methods
A total of 112 investigations of patients aged 0 to 17.2 years showing a normal degree of myelination and no signal abnormalities on conventional MRI were retrospectively selected from our pool of pediatric MRI examinations at 1.5T. ADC maps based on our routinely included axial diffusion weighted sequence were created from the scanner. ADC values were measured in 35 different brain regions investigating normal age-related changes during the maturation of the human brain in infancy and childhood using clinical feasible sequences at 1.5T.
Results
The relationship between ADC values and age in infancy and childhood can be described as an exponential function. With increasing age, the ADC values decrease significantly in all brain regions, especially during the first 2 years of life. Except in the peritrigonal white matter, no significant differences were found between both hemispheres. Between 0 and 2 years of life, no significant gender differences were detected.
Conclusions
Using ADC maps based on a routinely performed axial diffusion weighted sequence, it was possible first to describe the relationship between ADC values and age in infancy and childhood as exponential function in the whole brain and second to determine normative age-related ADC values in multiple brain regions.
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This retrospective study was approved by the local institutional review board. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Bültmann, E., Mußgnug, H.J., Zapf, A. et al. Changes in brain microstructure during infancy and childhood using clinical feasible ADC-maps. Childs Nerv Syst 33, 735–745 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00381-017-3391-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00381-017-3391-4