Study design and participants
birth defects, neurological diseases, intracranial abnormalities
PRETERM BIRTH, NEUROLOGICAL DISEASE
Following approval of this single-center prospective study (UMIN000039047) by the local ethics committee (No. 2019-12-83), written, informed consent was obtained from the parents or guardians of the participants.Study participants comprised consecutive outpatients, 2–180 months of age, who underwent brain MRI between January 2020 and January 2021 on suspicion of or for exclusion of intracranial abnormalities. Children whose parents or guardians consented to participate in this study were included. After acquiring QSM and DP-pCASL in addition to clinical MRI, the images were visually inspected (H.K., with 12 years of brain MRI acquisition experience) for quality control and were not included if inappropriate for subsequent analyses. The exclusion criteria were a history of preterm birth or birth defects, visible abnormalities on brain MRI, and diagnoses that included neurological diseases during follow-up examinations through December 2022. Eligible participants were stratified into three groups according to age in months: 2–24 months; 25–99 months; and 100–180 months.