Cerebral tissue water spin-spin relaxation times in human neonates at 2.4 tesla: methodology and the effects of maturation.

Using a 4-echo spin-echo sequence, cerebral T2 was measured in specific anatomic regions in eleven healthy newborn infants, whose gestational plus postnatal ages (GPAs) lay between 37 and 42 weeks. For a region in the pons, T2 was 141+/-9 ms (mean +/- standard deviation), and no significant dependence upon GPA was seen. In the thalamus mean T2 was 136+/-13 ms, and T2 demonstrated a significant negative linear dependence upon age (r = 0.690; p < 0.02). In periventricular and frontal regions, mean T2 were 217+/-33, and 228+/-32 ms respectively, and more marked negative linear correlations with age were observed (r = 0.833; p < 0.001 and r = 0.722; p < 0.02). For these regions, the rate of T2 decrease with age appeared to be related to known patterns of myelination. For the parietal region studied, mean T2 was 204+/-34 ms, no significant dependence upon GPA being seen. T2 shows promise as an objective measure of cerebral development in the perinatal period.