Longitudinal Metabolic Changes in Premature Newborns

Purpose: This study aims to investigate metabolic patterns in the brain during earlyneurodevelopment.Methods: Spectroscopic data from 35 high-quality single-voxel spectroscopy scansperformed on a total of 27 participants was processed and analyzed. These scans wereperformed as part of a study to investigate eects of preterm birth on neurodevelopmentat UCSF.Results: An increase in the N-Acetyl Aspartate/Creatine ratio and a decrease inboth Choline/Creatine and myo-Inositol/Creatine with increasing age were found tobe statistically signicant.Conclusions: The decrease in myo-Inositol was consistent with previous ndings of adecrease in myo-Inositol concentration from birth to 5 years of age. This decrease maybe due to myelin maturation and a reduction in cell turnover, but further investigationis needed to evaluate this hypothesis