Magnetization transfer ratio in the brain of preterm subjects: age-related changes during the first 2 years of life

To study the progress of myelination in preterm-born subjects by measuring the MT ratio (MTR) from birth, up to 24 months of corrected age.One hundred twenty-five preterm subjects (64 males and 61 females of gestational age 33±2.4 weeks with chronologic and corrected age of 9.3±5.1 and 7.7±5.1 months, respectively) with normal brain MR using classic sequences were further evaluated for MTR by using a three-dimensional gradient-echo sequence (TR=32/TE=8/flip angle=6° 4 mm/2 mm overlapping sections) with and without magnetization transfer prepulse. The magnetization transfer ratio was calculated as: MTR=(SIo-SIm)/SIo×100%, where SIm refers to signal intensity from an image acquired with a MT prepulse and SIo the signal intensity from the image acquired without a MT prepulse. MTR increased asymptotically in the genu (R²=0.85) and splenium (R²=0.85) of the corpus callosum, the white matter of the frontal lobe (R²=0.91) and occipital lobe (R²=0.82), thalamus (R²=0.86), caudate nucleus (R²=0.67) and putamen (R²=0.71), reaching the 95% of the final value at the corrected age 18.7, 17.7, 15.6, 12.9, 10.4, 9.2 and 6.4 months, respectively. This study shows age-related changes of the brain MTR and provides data that may be useful to assess disturbances in the progress of myelination.