1. Structural network topology correlates of microstructural brain dysmaturation in term infants with congenital heart disease
- Author
-
Vince Lee, Stefan Bluml, Vincent J. Schmithorst, Hollie Lai, Jennifer Johnson, Lisa Paquette, Joan Sanchez De Toledo, Nhu Tran, Ashok Panigrahy, Jodie K. Votava-Smith, Rafael Ceschin, and Richard W. Kim
- Subjects
Heart Defects, Congenital ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Brain development ,Heart disease ,030204 cardiovascular system & hematology ,computer.software_genre ,Network topology ,Article ,White matter ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Voxel ,Internal medicine ,Neural Pathways ,Humans ,Medicine ,Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and imaging ,Prospective Studies ,Complex congenital heart disease ,Radiological and Ultrasound Technology ,business.industry ,Infant, Newborn ,Brain ,medicine.disease ,Term (time) ,Diffusion Tensor Imaging ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Neurology ,Cardiology ,Female ,Neurology (clinical) ,Anatomy ,business ,computer ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Diffusion MRI - Abstract
Neonates with complex congenital heart disease (CHD) demonstrate microstructural brain dysmaturation, but the relationship with structural network topology is unknown. We performed diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in term neonates with CHD pre-operatively (N = 61) and post-operatively (N = 50) compared to healthy term controls (N = 91). We used network topology (graph) analyses incorporating different weighted and unweighted approaches and subject-specific white matter segmentation to investigate structural topology differences, as well as a voxel-based analysis (VBA) to confirm the presence of microstructural dysmaturation. We demonstrate cost-dependent network inefficiencies in neonatal CHD in the pre-operative and post-operative period compared to controls, related to microstructural differences. Controlling for cost, we show the presence of increased small-worldness (hierarchical fiber organization) in CHD infants pre-operatively, that persists in the post-operative period compared to controls, suggesting the early presence of brain reorganization. Taken together, topological microstructural dysmaturation in CHD infants is accompanied by hierarchical fiber organization during a protracted critical period of early brain development. Our methodology also provides a pipeline for quantitation of network topology changes in neonates and infants with microstructural brain dysmaturation at risk for perinatal brain injury.
- Published
- 2018