The measurement of the corpus callosum with MRI in children with developmental delay

YIN Honggang; ZHANG Qin; LU Xian

Abstract：Objective To investigate the diagnostic value of the measurement of the corpus callosum with MRI in children with developmental delay ( DD) .Methods We evaluated the performance of MRI and conducted a statistical analysis .MRI images of 120 children between the ages of 1 and 5 years with DD compared with 120 age-matched normal children were retrospectively ana-lyzed, who were averagely divided into 6 groups according to the growth rhythm .Midsagittal T1-weighted images were used to measure the thickness (genu, mid-body, and splenium) and length of the corpus callosum .The threshold values of all parameters were determined by the ROC curve analysis .Results The thickness of the genu and mid-body of the corpus callosum of children with DD were significantly thinner than that of normal children in group 1~4 ( P <0.05), whereas, all the other parameters showed no statistical difference .In ROC curve analysis of the group 1~4, when the critical value of the thickness of the genu was 8.1 mm, 7.5 mm, 8.9 mm and 9.2 mm, the sensitiviey was 85.0%, 60.0%, 75.0% and 60.0%, and the specificity was 55.0%, 95.0%, 75.0%and 85.0%, respectively;when the critical value of the thickness of the mid-body was 4.3 mm, 4.3 mm, 4.5 mm and 4.7 mm, the sensitivity was 65.0%, 75.0%, 75.0% and 50%, and the specificity was 80.0%, 65.0%, 95.0%and 90.0%, respectively.Conclusion The thickness of the genu and mid-body of the corpus callosum positively corre-late with volume of the cerebral white matter in children between the ages of 1 and 3 years with DD.The measurement of the cor-pus callosum with MRI might help in assessing the development of children in this age .