Neonatal Brain Injury and Timing of Neurodevelopmental Assessment in Patients With Congenital Heart Disease

BACKGROUND:Brain injury (BI) is reported in 60% of newborns with critical congenital heart disease as white matter injury (WMI) or stroke. Neurodevelopmental (ND) impairments are reported in these patients. The relationship between neonatal BI and ND outcome has not been established. OBJECTIVES:This study sought to determine the association between peri-operative BI and ND outcomes in infants with single ventricle physiology (SVP) and d-transposition of the great arteries (d-TGA). METHODS:Term newborns with d-TGA and SVP had pre-operative and post-operative brain magnetic resonance imaging and ND outcomes assessed at 12 and 30months with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II. BI was categorized by the brain injury severity score and WMI was quantified by volumetric analysis. RESULTS:A total of 104 infants had follow-up at 12months and 70 had follow-up at 30months. At 12months, only clinical variables were associated with ND outcome. At 30months, subjects with moderate-to-severe WMI had significantly lower Psychomotor Development Index (PDI) scores (13 points lower) as compared with those with none or minimal WMI for d-TGA and SVP (p=0.03 and p=0.05, respectively) after adjusting for various factors. Quantitative WMI volume was likewise associated. Stroke was not associated with outcome. The Bland-Altman limits of agreement for PDI scores at 12 and 30months were wide (-40.3 to 31.2) across the range of mean PDI values. CONCLUSIONS:Increasing burden of WMI is associated with worse motor outcomes at 30months for infants with criticalcongenital heart disease, whereas no adverse association was seen between small strokes and outcome. Theseresults support the utility of neonatal brain magnetic resonance imaging in this population to aid in predictinglateroutcomes and the importance of ND follow-up beyond 1 year of age.