Background
Many psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders are associated with mild enlargement
of the lateral ventricles thought to have origins in prenatal brain development. Little
is known about development of the lateral ventricles and the relationship of prenatal
lateral ventricle enlargement with postnatal brain development.
Methods
We performed neonatal magnetic resonance imaging on 34 children with isolated mild
ventriculomegaly (MVM; width of the atrium of the lateral ventricle ≥ 1.0 cm) on prenatal
ultrasound and 34 age- and sex-matched control subjects with normal prenatal ventricle
size. Lateral ventricle and cortical gray and white matter volumes were assessed.
Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) in corpus callosum and corticospinal
white matter tracts were determined obtained using quantitative tractography.
Results
Neonates with prenatal MVM had significantly larger lateral ventricle volumes than
matched control subjects (286.4%; p < .0001). Neonates with MVM also had significantly larger intracranial volumes (ICV;
7.1%, p = .0063) and cortical gray matter volumes (10.9%, p = .0004) compared with control subjects. Diffusion tensor imaging tractography revealed
a significantly greater MD in the corpus callosum and corticospinal tracts, whereas
FA was significantly smaller in several white matter tract regions.
Conclusions
Prenatal enlargement of the lateral ventricle is associated with enlargement of the
lateral ventricles after birth, as well as greater gray matter volumes and delayed
or abnormal maturation of white matter. It is suggested that prenatal ventricle volume
is an early structural marker of altered development of the cerebral cortex and may
be a marker of risk for neuropsychiatric disorders associated with ventricle enlargement.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 06, 2008
Accepted:
July 12,
2008
Received in revised form:
June 9,
2008
Received:
February 4,
2008
Identification
Copyright
© 2008 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
