Assessment of Brain Injury and Brain Volumes after Posthemorrhagic Ventricular Dilatation: A Nested Substudy of the Randomized Controlled ELVIS Trial.

Abstract

To compare the effect of early and late intervention for posthemorrhagic ventricular dilatation on additional brain injury and ventricular volume using term-equivalent age-MRI. In the Early vs Late Ventricular Intervention Study (ELVIS) trial, 126 preterm infants ≤34 weeks of gestation with posthemorrhagic ventricular dilatation were randomized to low-threshold (ventricular index >p97 and anterior horn width >6 mm) or high-threshold (ventricular index >p97 + 4 mm and anterior horn width >10 mm) groups. In 88 of those (80%) with a term-equivalent age-MRI, the Kidokoro Global Brain Abnormality Score and the frontal and occipital horn ratio were measured. Automatic segmentation was used for volumetric analysis. The total Kidokoro score of the infants in the low-threshold group (n = 44) was lower than in the high-threshold group (n = 44; median, 8 [IQR, 5-12] vs median 12 [IQR, 9-17], respectively; P More brain injury and larger ventricular volumes were demonstrated in the high vs the low-threshold group. These results support the positive effects of early intervention for posthemorrhagic ventricular dilatation. ISRCTN43171322.