• Jingjing Shi, Liwen Chang, Jian Wang, Shun Zhang, Yihao Yao, Shuixia Zhang, Rifeng Jiang, Linying Guo, Hanxiong Guan, and Wenzhen Zhu.
• Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
• Plos One. 2016 Jan 1; 11 (4): e0154146.

ObjectiveTo explore the parametric characteristics of diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) in the brain development of healthy preterm infants.Materials And MethodsConventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and DKI were performed in 35 preterm (29 to 36 weeks gestational age [GA]; scanned at 33 to 44 weeks postmenstrual age [PMA]) and 10 term infants (37.4 to 40.7 weeks GA; scanned at 38.3 to 42.9 weeks PMA). Fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD) and mean kurtosis (MK) values from 8 regions of interest, including both white matter (WM) and gray matter (GM), were obtained.ResultsMK and FA values were positively correlated with PMA in most selected WM regions, such as the posterior limbs of the internal capsule (PLIC) and the splenium of the corpus callosum (SCC). The positive correlation between MK value and PMA in the deep GM region was higher than that between FA and PMA. The MK value gradually decreased from the PLIC to the cerebral lobe. In addition, DKI parameters exhibited subtle differences in the parietal WM between the preterm and term control groups.ConclusionsMK may serve as a more reliable imaging marker of the normal myelination process and provide a more robust characterization of deep GM maturation.

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