Abstract
SUMMARY: Previous studies have not found structural injury or brain malformations in infants and children with prenatal opioid exposure. As part of an ongoing study evaluating neuroimaging in infants with prenatal opioid exposure, we reviewed structural brain MR imaging in 20 term infants with prenatal opioid exposure and 20 term controls at 4–8 weeks of age. We found that 8 of the 20 opioid-exposed infants had punctate white matter lesions or white matter signal abnormality on structural MR imaging, and 2 of the opioid-exposed infants had a septopreoptic fusion anomaly. No controls had white matter injury or structural malformations. Our findings underscore the importance of clinical neurodevelopmental follow-up and the need for more comprehensive imaging and long-term outcomes research following prenatal opioid exposure.
Footnotes
Dr Merhar was supported by National Institutes of Health KL2 TR1426.
Disclosures: Stephanie L. Merhar—RELATED: Grant: National Institutes of Health, Comments: KL2 TR 1426*; UNRELATED: Employment: Children's Hospital Medical Center (Cincinnati). Brenda B. Poindexter—RELATED: Grant: National Institutes of Health, Comments: National Institutes of Health/Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development UG1 HD027853-27S1 Clinical Research Investigator Supplement Award*; UNRELATED: Employment: Cincinnati Children's Hospital. *Money paid to institution.
- © 2019 by American Journal of Neuroradiology
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