Quantitative susceptibility mapping in the newborn brain with source separation: Comparison of preterm and full-term infants

Motivation: Estimating iron and myelin contents in the newborn brain can be used to access neurodevelopment, but is challenging with conventional quantitative susceptibility mapping. Goal(s): To separate positive and negative susceptibilities in the newborn brain and investigate differences between preterm and full-term newborns. Approach: A total of 22 full-term and 10 preterm newborns were studied using quantitative susceptibility mapping with R2*-based source separation. Mean susceptibilities within 10 regions-of-interests were compared between full-term and preterm newborns. Results: Preterm brains showed less positive and negative susceptibilities, compared to the full-term brains. Impact: This study suggests that positive and negative magnetic susceptibilities in the newborn brain may be estimated individually using quantitative susceptibility mapping with source separation and may be used to identify early deviations from normal neurodevelopment in preterm-born infants.