Early assessment of injury with optical markers in a piglet model of neonatal encephalopathy

BackgroundOpportunities for adjunct therapies with cooling in neonatal encephalopathy are imminent; however, robust biomarkers of early assessment are lacking. Using an optical platform of broadband near-infrared spectroscopy and diffuse correlation spectroscopy to directly measure mitochondrial metabolism (oxCCO), oxygenation (HbD), cerebral blood flow (CBF), we hypothesised optical indices early (1-h post insult) after hypoxia-ischaemia (HI) predicts insult severity and outcome.MethodsNineteen newborn large white piglets underwent continuous neuromonitoring as controls or following moderate or severe HI. Optical indices were expressed as mean semblance (phase difference) and coherence (spectral similarity) between signals using wavelet analysis. Outcome markers included the lactate/N-acetyl aspartate (Lac/NAA) ratio at 6 h on proton MRS and TUNEL cell count.ResultsCBF-HbD semblance (cerebrovascular dysfunction) correlated with BGT and white matter (WM) Lac/NAA (r(2) = 0.46, p = 0.004, r(2) = 0.45, p = 0.004, respectively), TUNEL cell count (r(2) = 0.34, p = 0.02) and predicted both initial insult (r(2) = 0.62, p = 0.002) and outcome group (r(2) = 0.65 p = 0.003). oxCCO-HbD semblance (cerebral metabolic dysfunction) correlated with BGT and WM Lac/NAA (r(2) = 0.34, p = 0.01 and r(2) = 0.46, p = 0.002, respectively) and differentiated between outcome groups (r(2) = 0.43, p = 0.01).ConclusionOptical markers of both cerebral metabolic and vascular dysfunction 1 h after HI predicted injury severity and subsequent outcome in a pre-clinical model.ImpactThis study highlights the possibility of using non-invasive optical biomarkers for early assessment of injury severity following neonatal encephalopathy, relating to the outcome.Continuous cot-side monitoring of these optical markers can be useful for disease stratification in the clinical population and for identifying infants who might benefit from future adjunct neuroprotective therapies beyond cooling.

Automated summary

Using optical markers to measure mitochondrial metabolism, oxygenation, and cerebral blood flow, this study found that these markers can predict injury severity and outcome in neonates with encephalopathy just 1 hour after hypoxia-ischemia.