Resistive indices of cerebral arteries in very preterm infants

BACKGROUND: Little is known about cerebral artery resistive index values in infants born extremely preterm.

OBJECTIVE: To report resistive index values in various cerebral arteries in a prospective cohort of preterm infants born at <29 weeks' gestation, and to compare resistive index in these arteries and assess the relationship between resistive index and hemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using Doppler imaging, we obtained resistive index values of internal carotid arteries, basilar artery, anterior cerebral artery, and pial and striatal arteries in the first 3 days of age and weekly thereafter until discharge or death. We analyzed paired observations using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, between-group comparisons with the Mann-Whitney test.

RESULTS: We performed 771 examinations in 235 infants. Resistive indices differed among arteries: vessels with larger diameters showed significantly higher resistive indices. Resistive index in infants without patent ductus arteriosus was lower than that in infants with hemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus (median in anterior cerebral artery: 0.75 and 0.82, respectively; P<0.001), though this was not statistically significant in all arteries. There was no difference in pre- and post-ligation resistive indices in infants who underwent patent ductus arteriosus ligation.

CONCLUSION: For accurate follow-up and comparison of cerebral artery resistive index, the same artery should be examined on each occasion.