According to a pediatrician at Washington University at St. Louis Children's Hospital, performing MRI scans on the brains of pre-term infants can dramatically help in the prediction of the babies' future developmental outcomes.

Associate professor of pediatrics, of radiology and of neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Terrie E. Inder, M.D., and pediatric researchers in New Zealand and Australia found that the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were able to determine abnormalities in the white matter and gray matter of the brains of very pre-term infants (born at 30 weeks or less).

Upon closely following those infants from birth to age 2, the researchers were able to grade the said abnormalities to predict the risk of severe cognitive delays, psychomotor delays, cerebral palsy, or hearing or visual impairments that may be visible by age 2.

The said findings are indeed a breakthrough because previous technology (like cranial ultrasounds) did not show the abnormalities in the infants' brains.

According to Dr. Inder:

"With the MRI, now we can understand what's going wrong in the developing brain when the baby is born early. We can use the MRI when the baby reaches full-term (40 weeks) to predict neurodevelopmental outcomes."

"We can use these results to determine which baby would benefit most from physical, occupational or speech therapy. We can also help prepare the parents for future challenges with learning delays and developmental disabilities."

The above study findings appeared in the Aug. 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Read more at Washington University School Of Medicine.