Diffusion-MRI Approaches to Study Brain Development Following Preterm Birth

This thesis discusses the potential and pitfalls of studying brain development in neonates using advanced applications diffusion MRI. In the fist part of this thesis, various guidelines and quality assessment strategies are proposed, aiming at increasing diffusion-MRI data robustness in order to achieve more reliable analysis.

The second part of this thesis discusses advanced imaging strategies using diffusion-MRI such as high angular resolution diffusion MRI (HARDI). The use of more advanced imaging approaches and analyses intents to result in more reliable representation of brain anatomy and better depiction of brain pathology. In this part of the thesis, we discuss the feasibility of such approaches.

Last, imaging findings are correlated to ex vivo histological staining experiments using specimen models to assess whether imaging parameters obtained using diffusion-MRI can represent microstructural changes in brain microstructure following adverse events adequately.