Introduction The neonatal period in very preterm born infants is characterized by high vulnerability of the developing brain. Diffuse or cystic white matter injury—cystic periventricular leukomalacia (cPVL)—is one of the most serious complications leading to brain injury in preterm infants, associated with an increased risk of neurological impairments such as cerebral palsy. Methods In the present study, parameters that may potentially influence the occurrence of cPVL are analyzed. The study is based on retrospective clinical data of 46 preterm infants with and without cPVL, including prenatal factors, birth-related information, neonatal diagnoses and routinely measured clinical monitoring data. The novelty of this work lies in the inclusion in analyses of cerebral blood flow (CBF), CBF fluctuations and partial pressure of oxygen in brain tissue (PtO 2 ), calculated from routinely measured parameters using a mathematical model. Results Statistical analyses revealed significant association between cPVL and a group of 5 clinical and 23 regularly measured parameters including mathematically calculated CBF, CBF fluctuations and PtO 2 . The obtained results may be useful for future risk assessment of cPVL at an early stage.
Lampe et al. (Wed,) studied this question.