Imaging patterns of sonographic lenticulostriate vasculopathy and correlation with clinical and neurodevelopmental outcome

Purpose: To evaluate the relationship between the imaging patterns of lenticulostriate vasculopathy (LSV) and clinical outcomes. Methods: We performed cranial sonography (US) in 110 neonates and evaluated the patterns of visible lenticulostriate vessels with three grades: 0: no vessel seen; 1 (low grade): one or two thin branches seen; and 2 (high grade): more than three prominent branches seen. Color Doppler US was performed on these vessels to evaluate the presence of flow. Associated underlying diseases and the presence of neurodevelopmental delay on follow-up were reviewed retrospectively. Results: There were 51 neonates with associated underlying diseases, including congenital heart diseases (CHD) (n=34) and neonatal hypoxia (n=13). Sonographic LSV was detected in 29.1% cases (22 low- and 10 high-grade cases). Doppler flow was not detected in three patients with CHD (p=0.028). CHD (odds ratio [OR], 25.73; p<0.001), neonatal hypoxia (OR, 7.00; p=0.020), two underlying diseases (OR, 73.232; p<0.001), high-grade LSV (OR, 16.29; p=0.005), and absent color Doppler flow (OR, 40.80; p=0.046) were significantly associated with neurodevelopmental delay in univariate analysis. In multivariate analysis, underlying diseases and absent color Doppler flow were associated with neurodevelopmental delay. Both high LSV grade (area under the receiver operating characteristic curves of 0.901; 95% confidence interval, 0.823-0.979) and absent color Doppler flow (area under the receiver operating characteristic curves of 0.874; 95% confidence interval, 0.803-0.945) had a high predictive power for neurodevelopmental delay. Conclusions: High-grade sonographic LSV and absent color Doppler flow on lenticulostriate vessels were significantly associated with neurodevelopmental delay.