Effects of a Multicomponent Lipid Emulsion on Brain Volumes in Extremely Low Birth Weight Infants

Purpose: During the early weeks of life optimization of nutrition in extremely preterm infants presents a critical opportunity to attenuate the adverse neurologic consequences of prematurity and potentially improve neurodevelopmental outcome. We hypothesized that the use of multicomponent lipid emulsion (MLE) in PN would be related to larger volume of the cerebellum on brain magnetic resonance at term of equivalent age (TEA) in extremely low birthweight (ELBW) infants. Methods: We analyzed the brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) at TEA of a cohort of preterm infants with gestational age (GA) ≤28 weeks and/or birthweight (BW) <1000 grams randomly assigned in our previous trial to receive a Multicomponent lipid emulsion (MLE) or Soybean-based lipid emulsion (SLE). The primary outcome of the study was the cerebellar volume (CeV) valued on MRI acquired at TEA. Secondary outcomes included total brain volume (TBV), Supratentorial Volume (SuV), Brainstem Volume (BsV) and Cerebellar volume corrected for TBV evaluated on MRI acquired at TEA. Results: MRIs at TEA of 34 infants were then analyzed: 17 in the MLE group and17 in the SLE group. The postmenstrual age (PMA) at which MRIs were performed were comparable between the two study groups. The CeV, as well as the PMA-corrected CeV, were significantly higher in the MLE group than in the SLE group. No difference was found among the other brain volumes considered. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the use of MLE in PN could promote CeV growth in ELBW infants, valued with MRI at TEA.