Background: Widespread white matter (WM) pathology in preterm children has been proposed.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate maturational differences of WM between preterm infants with thinning of the corpus callosum and full-term infants.
Materials and methods: A total of 18 preterm children and 18 full-term children were divided into three subgroups according to the corrected age at the time of diffusion tensor imaging scanning. Tract-based spatial statistics was used for assessing differences in fractional anisotropy (FA) between preterm and full-term children, and between each age-related subgroup in preterm and in full-term children.
Results: In the preterm group, FA values of overall WM showed an increase with age. This trend indicates that WM maturation is a gradual occurrence during a child's first 2 years. In the full-term group, most WM structures had reached maturation at around 1 year of age; however, centrum semiovale level showed sustained maturation during the first 2 years.
Conclusion: Results of our study demonstrate radiologic maturational differences of WM and provide evidence of the need for therapeutic intervention within 2 years of birth to prevent specific functional impairment and to improve clinical outcome in preterm children.