Neonatal Pain-Related Stress Association Analysis
Objective: Examine the association between neonatal pain-related stress (skin-breaking procedures) and cortical thickness in very preterm children using constrained principal component analysis and generalized linear modeling
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Equipment1
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Software2
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Protocol Steps
Subject recruitment and longitudinal follow-up
Enroll 42 right-handed children born very preterm (24-32 weeks gestational age) and follow them longitudinally from birth
Note: Exclude children with severe brain injury and major motor/sensory/cognitive impairment
View evidence from paper
“42 right-handed children born very preterm (24–32 weeks gestational age) followed longitudinally from birth”
MRI neuroimaging acquisition
Perform 3-D T1 MRI neuroimaging at mean age 7.9 years
View evidence from paper
“underwent 3-D T1 MRI neuroimaging at mean age 7.9 yrs”
Brain segmentation and cortical thickness calculation
Process MRI data using FreeSurfer segmentation and custom developed software to calculate regional cortical thickness
View evidence from paper
“Regional cortical thickness was calculated using custom developed software utilizing FreeSurfer segmentation data”
Quantify neonatal pain-related stress exposure
Define neonatal pain-related stress as the number of skin-breaking procedures during neonatal period
View evidence from paper
“neonatal pain-related stress (defined as the number of skin-breaking procedures)”
Identify and document clinical confounders
Record clinical confounders including gestational age, illness severity, infection, mechanical ventilation, surgeries, and morphine exposure
View evidence from paper
“accounting for clinical confounders (gestational age, illness severity, infection, mechanical ventilation, surgeries, and morphine exposure)”
Constrained principal component analysis
Apply constrained principal component analysis to examine the association between neonatal pain-related stress and cortical thickness while accounting for clinical confounders
View evidence from paper
“was examined in relation to cortical thickness using constrained principal component analysis followed by generalized linear modeling”
Generalized linear modeling
Perform generalized linear modeling to further analyze the association between neonatal pain-related stress and cortical thickness
View evidence from paper
“constrained principal component analysis followed by generalized linear modeling”