Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

OP02.09: Maternal brain structural and metabolite changes preceding the onset of pre‐eclampsia

2021; Wiley; Volume: 58; Issue: S1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/uog.23934

1469-0705

A. Nakaki, F. Crovetto, Rui V. Simões, Allegra Conti, Alexander Leemans, Gabriela Azevedo Sansoni, E. Eixarch, Nicola Toschi, F. Crispi, E. Gratacós,

MRI in cancer diagnosis

To evaluate maternal brain structure and metabolites during pregnancy in women who later developed pre-eclampsia (PE). Maternal brain 3T MR was performed in a prospective cohort of singleton pregnancies near term (36-38 weeks). T1, T2, diffusion-weighted images and a single-voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1HMRS) sequence were obtained. Regional volumes and their fractional anisotropy (FA) were obtained with the Explore DTI toolbox in the occipital, temporal, and parietal lobes. 1HMRS data from the frontal lobe were processed with LCModel software, with the analysis of sum of N-acetylaspartate and N-acetylaspartyilglutamate (tNAA), choline containing compounds (Cho), sum of creatine and phosphocreatine (tCr). Brain volumes were corrected by total brain volume; Benjamini-Hochberg adjustment was done for multiple comparison. Among 70 women, 4 developed PE after the MR scan, with a mean delay of 11.5 days (SD 6.8). Women who later developed PE showed significantly smaller volumes compared to non-hypertensive women in bilateral inferior parietal (Right: 228.3cm3 vs. 195.7cm3, p = 0.01; Left: 193.0cm3 vs. 168.2cm3, p = 0.01) and bilateral superior temporal areas (Right: 461.8cm3 vs. 397.8cm3, p = 0.02; Left: 474.2cm3 vs. 463.2cm3, p = 0.04), and larger volumes in left parahippocampal (330.8cm3 vs. 353.9cm3, p = 0.01) and right cuneus area (558.0cm3 vs. 627.5cm3, p = 0.02). Regarding FA analysis, same areas showed reduced FA in PE women (Right inferior parietal: 0.350 vs. 0.335, p < 0.001; Left parahippocampal: 0.336 vs. 0.300, p < 0.001; Right cuneus: 0.270 vs. 0.257 p = 0.02). In the 1HMRS analysis, PE women had significantly higher tCr concentration compared to non-hypertensive women (5.621 mmol/kg vs. 5.097mmol/kg, p < 0.01), while tNAA and Cho did not differ between groups. Women who subsequently develop PE might present alterations in brain macro/micro structures and metabolites before the occurrence of the disease. Further studies to confirm these results are warranted.