Mackay, Mark T; Chen, Jian; Shapiro, Jesse; Pastore-Wapp, Manuela; Slavova, Nedelina; Grunt, Sebastian; Stojanovski, Belinda; Steinlin, Maja; Beare, Richard J; Yang, Joseph Yuan-Mou (2023). Association of Acute Infarct Topography With Development of Cerebral Palsy and Neurological Impairment in Neonates With Stroke. Neurology, 101(15), e1509-e1520. American Academy of Neurology 10.1212/WNL.0000000000207705
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OBJECTIVES
Research investigating neonatal arterial ischemic stroke (NAIS) outcomes have shown that combined cortical and basal ganglia infarction or involvement of the corticospinal tract predict cerebral palsy (CP). The research question was whether voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) on acute MRI can identify brain regions associated with CP and neurodevelopmental impairments in neonatal arterial ischemic stroke (NAIS).
METHODS
Newborns were recruited from prospective Australian and Swiss pediatric stroke registries. CP diagnosis was based on clinical examination. Language and cognitive-behavioral impairments were assessed using the Pediatric Stroke Outcome Measure, dichotomized to good (0-0.5) or poor (≥ 1), at ≥18 months of age. Infarcts were manually segmented using diffusion-weighted imaging, registered to a neonatal-specific brain template. VLSM was conducted using MATLAB SPM12 toolbox. A general linear model was used to correlate lesion masks with motor, language and cognitive-behavioral outcomes. Voxel-wise t-test statistics were calculated, correcting for multiple comparisons using family-wise error rate (FWE).
RESULTS
Eighty-five newborns met inclusion criteria. Infarct lateralization was left hemisphere (62%), right (8%) and bilateral (30%). At median age 2.1 years (IQR 1.9-2.6), 33% developed CP and 42% had neurological impairments. 54 grey and white matter regions correlated with CP (t>4.33; FWE <0.05), including primary motor pathway regions, such as the precentral gyrus, and cerebral peduncle, and regions functionally connected to the primary motor pathway, such as the pallidum, and corpus callosum motor segment. No significant correlations were found for language or cognitive-behavioral outcomes.
CONCLUSIONS
CP following NAIS correlates with infarct regions directly involved in motor control and, or in functionally connected regions. Areas associated with language or cognitive-behavioral impairment are less clear.