Diffuse white matter abnormality in very preterm infants at term reflects reduced brain network efficiency

Between 50 and 80% of very preterm infants (<32 weeks gestational age) exhibit increased white matter signal intensity on T2-weighted MRI at term-equivalent age, known as diffuse white matter abnormality (DWMA). A few studies have linked DWMA with microstructural abnormalities, but the exact relationship remains poorly understood. We related DWMA extent to graph theory measures of network efficiency at term in a representative cohort of 343 very...