Detection of intracranial hemorrhage in healthy neonatal mice by T2*-weighted 7T MRI

Motivation: Neonatal brain hemorrhage, which are observed in premature and even in full-term infants, could cause adverse neurological damage, however, the mechanism of hemorrhages is unknown and the validated information for neonatal hemorrhages, especially in asymptomatic neonates, is lacking. Goal(s): Our goal was to detect hemorrhages in the brains of untreated postnatal mice and evaluate the spatiotemporal information. Approach: T2*-weighted MR images were obtained from records of C57BL/6J mice at P0-1 and acquired hemorrhages were cross-validated by histological analysis. Results: We found that hemorrhages occur throughout the brain of healthy neonatal mice. Impact: In vivo MRI of untreated postnatal mice may serve as a useful tool to further investigate asymptomatic hemorrhages in full-term infants and will deepen our understanding of not only the mechanism of neonatal hemorrhages but also the brain development.