Disorganized Patterns of Sulcal Position in Fetal Brains with Agenesis of Corpus Callosum

Abstract

Fetuses with isolated agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC) are associated with a broad spectrum of neurodevelopmental disability that cannot be specifically predicted in prenatal neuroimaging. We hypothesized that ACC may be associated with aberrant cortical folding. In this study, we determined altered patterning of early primary sulci development in fetuses with isolated ACC using novel quantitative sulcal pattern analysis which measures deviations of regional sulcal features (position, depth, and area) and their intersulcal relationships in 7 fetuses with isolated ACC (27.1 ± 3.8 weeks of gestation, mean ± SD) and 17 typically developing (TD) fetuses (25.7 ± 2.0 weeks) from normal templates. Fetuses with ACC showed significant alterations in absolute sulcal positions and relative intersulcal positional relationship compared to TD fetuses, which were not detected by traditional gyrification index. Our results reveal altered sulcal positional development even in isolated ACC that is present as early as the second trimester and continues throughout the fetal period. It might originate from altered white matter connections and portend functional variances in later life.

Quantitative MRI Analyses of Regional Brain Growth in Living Fetuses with Down Syndrome

“…Based on segmentation data, the inner cerebral (subcortical parenchyma) surface was extracted using surface-mesh models Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/cercor/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/cercor/bhz094/5513486 by Tufts University user on 06 July 2019 in each cerebral hemisphere as described previously (Tarui et al 2018). The inner cerebral surface reflects the gray/white matter border surface.…”

“…One of its advantages over sonography is that post-acquisition quantitative analyses can be performed, such as volumetric and cerebral surface-based analyses Studholme 2015). Analysis of fetal brain MRIs has successfully detected subtle developmental aberrations in regional structural growth and cerebral sulcal development in fetuses with brain malformations such as cerebral ventriculomegaly (Biegon and Hoffmann 2014;Benkarim et al 2018), polymicrogyria (Im et al 2017), and agenesis of corpus callosum (Tarui et al 2018). One of its advantages over fetopsy is that MRI can be applied safely to living fetuses also allows a study of inter-individual variations at various time points during development.…”

Early-Emerging Sulcal Patterns Are Atypical in Fetuses with Congenital Heart Disease

“…The inner volume of the cortical plate was binarized and smoothed using a 3 × 3 × 3 voxel mean filter for the reconstruction of smooth surface models that are less susceptible to noise. The 3D inner cortical plate surface was reconstructed using the isosurface function with an isovalue of 0.5 (Im et al 2017;Tarui et al 2018). Although small folds of similar size to a voxel might be eliminated, smoothing effectively limits noise and voxelized representation of the brain surface.…”

“…Then a mean 3D relative position from 0 to 1 (x: left-right [0-1]; y: posterior-anterior [0-1]; z: inferiorsuperior [0-1]) was measured for each sulcal basin. The normalized surface area (area/whole cortical area) and mean depth of the sulcal basin were also calculated for sulcal geometry (Im et al 2017;Tarui et al 2018).…”

“…Application of this technique has supported a genetic impact on the sulcal pattern from twin pairs (Im, Pienaar, Lee et al 2011) and has shown atypical cortical development in children with polymicrogyria and developmental dyslexia (Im, Pienaar, et al 2013;Im et al 2016). Recently, an atypical early sulcal pattern was revealed in human fetuses with brain abnormalities and agenesis of the corpus callosum using this method, while GI showed no difference, suggesting sulcal pattern analysis may be more sensitive for early cortical disturbances (Im et al 2017;Tarui et al 2018). Here, we sought to apply this technique to evaluate for early differences in sulcal patterns between CHD and typically developing (TD) fetuses.…”