Preliminary evidence that prenatal alcohol damage may be visible in averaged ultrasound images of the neonatal human corpus callosum

Brain damage consequent to prenatal alcohol exposure can be detected by measurements of the corpus callosum in the midline magnetic resonance (MR) brain image in adolescents and adults. The present article extends this finding into the neonatal period, when the power of detection to ameliorate the quality of the child's future life is greatest. The midline corpus callosum of the very young infant can be located reliably in multiple frames of clinical transfontanelle ultrasound. We studied a sample of 18 children aged 17 weeks or less, 7 of whom were exposed to high levels of alcohol prenatally and 11 of whom were not exposed or only minimally exposed. The midline callosum of each child was imaged up to 50 times by a standard clinical device, and coplanar subsets of these series were averaged with reference to fiducial image structures. On each average image four semilandmark points were set and their configuration quantified by standard landmark methods. The angle between the terminal bulb of splenium and the long axis of the callosal outline classifies four of the seven exposed infants as different from all 11 of the unexposed infants. This simple angle measurement upon averaged ultrasound images of the human neonatal midline corpus callosum, perhaps a version of the long-sought “biomarker of prenatal alcohol damage,” may be able to discriminate baby brains affected by prenatal alcohol exposure from those that were unaffected.