Objective: To identify patterns of neuroimaging (NI), including cranial ultrasounds (CUS) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), among a large cohort of United States NICU infants.
Study design: The retrospective cohort study of the Pediatrix Clinical Data Warehouse for infants discharged between 2008 and 2017.
Results: From the 863,863 infants during the study period, 204,197 (24%) had at least one NI study. CUS was the most common study (n = 189,190, 22%) followed by MRI (n = 37,107, 4%). From 2008 to 2017, the percentage of infants who underwent any NI decreased from 28 to 21% (p < 0.001) driven primarily by a reduction in CUS. MRI use for infants ≤33 weeks increased through 2015 and then decreased.
Conclusions: Overall reductions in NI have been driven by decreased use of CUS in infants born at 31-33 weeks' gestational age. MRI use among preterm infants has been more dynamic with an initial rise and recent decrease.