Brain Injury Patterns In Neonatal Hypoglycemia

Objective:Our purpose was to assess the patterns of neuroradiologic changes injury observed in patients who suffered brain damage consequent to neonatal hypoglycemia.Methods:A prospective cohort study was conducted on33patients of neonatal hypoglycemia during June2013and March2014. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and cranial ultrasonography (US) scans, the imaging studies and clinical records of neonatal hypoglycemia were reviewed and patterns of injury were compared.Results:MRI showed evidence of abnormality in54.5%the hypoglycemic infants. The most common observed abnormal findings were injury primarily to the parietal and occipital lobes of the brain, and the abnormalities are located predominantly on the posterior aspects of the cerebral cortex associated with periventricular white matter lesions. The duration of hypoglycemia was significantly longer for abnormal MRI infants (median day:1.00day; range:1.00to18.00days vs1.00day;0.04to3.00days; P=0.013). However, patients with abnormal MRI findings did not have a lower blood glucose than infants without abnormal MRI findings (1.52±0.36mmol/L vs.1.69±0.40mmol/L, P=0.189). Infants with abnormal MRI findings were more likely to have experienced neonatal seizures (5/6,83.33%and13/27,48.15%;X2=1.238, P=0.266), but these findings were not statistically significant.Conclusions:MRI detected more abnormalities in the brains of neonatal hypoglycemia than cranial US. The pattern of bilateral occipital cortical injury is the most obvious for neonatal hypoglycemia. The duration of hypoglycemia, not the lower blood glucose was significantly related to abnormal MRI infants.