Interaction between Preterm White Matter Injury and Childhood Thalamic Growth

Objective The purpose of this study was to determine how preterm white matter injury (WMI) and long‐term thalamic growth interact to predict 8‐year neurodevelopmental outcomes. Methods A prospective cohort of 114 children born at 24 to 32 weeksʼ gestational age (GA) underwent structural and diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging early in life (median 32 weeks), at term‐equivalent age and at 8 years. Manual segmentation of neonatal WMI was performed on T1‐weighted images and thalamic volumes were obtained using the MAGeT brain segmentation pipeline. Cognitive, motor, and visual‐motor outcomes were evaluated at 8 years of age. Multivariable regression was used to examine the relationship among neonatal WMI volume, school‐age thalamic volume, and neurodevelopmental outcomes. Results School‐age thalamic volumes were predicted by neonatal thalamic growth rate, GA, sex, and neonatal WMI volume ( p < 0.0001). After accounting for total cerebral volume, WMI volume remained associated with school‐age thalamic volume (β = −0.31, p = 0.005). In thalamocortical tracts, fractional anisotropy (FA) at term‐equivalent age interacted with early WMI volume to predict school‐age thalamic volumes (all p < 0.02). School‐age thalamic volumes and neonatal WMI interacted to predict full‐scale IQ ( p = 0.002) and adverse motor scores among those with significant WMI ( p = 0.01). Visual‐motor scores were predicted by thalamic volumes ( p = 0.04). Interpretation In very preterm‐born children, neonatal thalamic growth and WMI volume predict school‐age thalamic volumes. The emergence at term of an interaction between FA and WMI to impact school‐age thalamic volume indicates dysmaturation as a mechanism of thalamic growth failure. Cognition is predicted by the interaction of WMI and thalamic growth, highlighting the need to consider multiple dimensions of brain injury in these children. ANN NEUROL 2021;90:584–594