Background and Purpose Abnormal cerebral microstructure has been documented in term neonates with congenital heart disease (CHD) portending risk for injury and poor neurodevelopmental outcome. Our hypothesis was that preterm neonates with CHD would demonstrate diffuse cerebral microstructural abnormalities when compared to critically ill neonates without CHD. A secondary aim was to identify any association between microstructural abnormalities, white matter injury (e.g., punctate white matter lesions, pWMLs) and other clinical variables, including heart lesion. Material and Methods Using Tract-Based-Spatial-Statistics (TBSS), an unbiased, voxel-wise method for analyzing diffusion tensor imaging data, we compared 21 preterm neonates with CHD to two cohorts of neonates without CHD: 28 term and 27 preterm neonates, identified from the same neonatal intensive care unit. Results Compared to term neonates without CHD, preterm neonates with CHD had microstructural abnormalities in widespread regions of the central white matter. However, 42% of the preterm CHD neonates had pWMLs. When neonates with pWMLs were excluded, microstructural abnormalities remained only in the splenium. Preterms with CHD had similar microstructure to preterms without CHD. Conclusion Diffuse microstructural abnormalities were observed in preterm neonates with CHD, strongly associated with pWMLs. Independently, regional vulnerability of the splenium, a structure associated with visual spatial function, was observed in all preterm CHD neonates.

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