Regional cortical development in very low birth weight infants with normal neurodevelopmental outcome assessed by 3D-ultrasound

Objective:three-dimensional ultrasound (3d-us) offers new perspectives in cerebral imaging.study design:this prospective study aimed to determine whether 3d-us is appropriate to assess cortical development of the premature brain, and compare it to previously established reference values assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (mri). preterm infants with a gestational age (ga) of <32 weeks were examined by serial 3d-us scans.result:data of 30 patients with normal neurological development at the age of 5 years were included in the analysis. cortical development was graded according to a five-point scoring system, and data were stratified into 6 age groups. cortical developmental scores were established for various brain regions. in the frontal and frontoparietal regions, 3d-us reference values differed from published mri reference values, but were consistent with the published data in all other regions.conclusion:3d-us reference values facilitate routine diagnostics and enable the evaluation of cortical development in preterm infants.