Brain volumes of very low birth weight infants measured by two dimensional cranial ultrasonography, a prospective cohort study

Background Cranial ultrasonography is the main neuroimaging technique for very low birth weight infants. Brain volume is a very important information about central nervous system of preterm babies.

This study aimed to evaluate brain volumes of preterm infants with two dimensional measurements of cranial ultrasonography.

Methods Intracranial height, anteroposterior diameter, bi-parietal diamater, ventricular height, thalamo-occipital distance and ventricular index measured with routine cranial ultrasonographic scanning. Brain considered a spheric, ellipsoid model and estimated absolute brain volume (EABV) calculated by substracting two lateral ventricular volumes from the total brain volume.

Results One hundred and twenty one preterm infants under a birthweight of 1500 g and 32 weeks of gestational age included in this study. Mean gestational age of study population was 27,7 weeks, and mean birthweight was 1057 grams.

Twenty two of 121 infants had dilated ventricle, in this group EABV was lower than normal group (202 ± 58 cm³ vs 250 ± 53 cm³, respectively, p<0.01). Advanced resuscitation, bronchopulmonary dysplasia and late onset sepsis found to be independent risk factors for low brain volume in our data.

Conclusions Estimated absolute brain volume could be calculated and estimated by two dimensional measurements with transfontanel ultrasonography.