Evaluation of brain development using 1H-MRS-Detectable metabolites as biomarkers in children with liver desease

Tulpesh Patel, Deirdre Kelly, Sue V. Beath, Jacqueline C. Blyth, Jade N. Thai, Jaswant Sira, Gareth Griffiths, Joel B. Talcott

Research output: Contribution to journalConference abstractpeer-review

Abstract

PURPOSE: Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (1H-MRS) is a non-invasive imaging technique that enables quantitication of neurochemicals in vivo with potential diagnostic value and facilitating investigations of brain development. This study evaluated the extent to which 1H-MRS can add information to the study of children with liver disease pre- and post-transplant (Tx) by revealing abnormalities in cerebral metabolism, and to evaluate if performance on measures of cognitive ability is related to concentrations of 1H-MRS-detectable neurometabolites.
METHOD:In a sample of 23 children with liver desease (pre-Tx n=13, mean age 13.1; post Tx=10 mean age 15.1) and 11 healthy controls (mean age 12.2), single voxel 1H-MRS in occipitoparietal and frontal cortical white matter was used to assay concentrations of four principles metabolities:N acetyl aspartate, choline, myo-Inositol and glutamate-glutamine, in parallel with assessments of Full-scale IQ (FSIQ).
RESULTS: No differences in cerebral metabolites were observed between the pre- and post-Tx groups, nor between these patients and age-matched healthy controls. This suggests that neurodevelopment, assayed by surrogate neurometabolite markers detected by 1H-MRS, is normal in the liver disease patient cohort and is unaffected by Tx intervention. No correlations were observed between any of the metabolite measures and FSIQ
CONCLUSION: 1H-MRS may supplement neuropsychological tests to enable evaluation of the patient’s progress before and after transplantation and holds promise as a screening tool for biomarkers in liver disease because of the increased precision gained through using continuous measures rather than ordinal or categorical ones. The use of 1H-MRS is still largely exploratory and further normative 1H-MRS metabolite values are required to provide context for the clinical data.
Original languageEnglish
Article number330
Pages (from-to)121
Number of pages1
JournalPediatric Transplantation
Volume15
Issue numberS1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2011
Event6th Congress of the International Pediatric Transplant Association - Montreal, Canada
Duration: 25 Jun 201128 Jun 2011

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