ArticleAJNR. American journal of neuroradiology2024
A Prospective Multi-Institutional Study Comparing the Brain Development in the Third Trimester between Opioid-Exposed and Nonexposed Fetuses Using Advanced Fetal MR Imaging Techniques.
Article in AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 3 citations in OpenAlex.
- Antenatal Opioid Exposure and Cerebral Cortical Maturation in Newborns.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Melatonin Partially Attenuates Oxycodone-Induced Placental Stress Signaling and Fetal Brain Apoptosis in a Sex-Specific Manner.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Evaluating reliability of automated quantitative brain morphometry from fetal T2-weighted MRI.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Fetal brain volumes and brain gyrification index associated with opioid exposure.Brain communications · 2026Article
- Review
- Quantifying the Timing of Gyral and Sulcal Formation Relative to Growth in the Ferret Cerebral Cortex.Developmental neuroscience · 2025Article
- The role of cortical structural variance in deep learning-based prediction of fetal brain age.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
background and purposeWhile the adverse neurodevelopmental effects of prenatal opioid exposure on infants and children in the United States are well described, the underlying causative mechanisms have yet to be fully understood. This study aims to compare quantitative volumetric and surface-based features of the fetal brain between opioid-exposed fetuses and unexposed controls by using advanced MR imaging processing techniques. MATERIALS AND
methodsThis is a multi-institutional IRB-approved study in which pregnant women with and without opioid use during the current pregnancy were prospectively recruited to undergo fetal MR imaging. A total of 14 opioid-exposed (31.4 ± 2.3 weeks of gestation) and 15 unexposed (31.4 ± 2.4 weeks) fetuses were included. Whole brain volume, cortical plate volume, surface area, sulcal depth, mean curvature, and gyrification index were computed as quantitative features by using our fetal brain MR imaging processing pipeline.
resultsAfter correcting for gestational age, fetal sex, maternal education, polysubstance use, high blood pressure, and MR imaging acquisition site, all of the global morphologic features were significantly lower in the opioid-exposed fetuses compared with the unexposed fetuses, including brain volume, cortical volume, cortical surface area, sulcal depth, cortical mean curvature, and gyrification index. In regional analysis, the opioid-exposed fetuses showed significantly decreased surface area and sulcal depth in the bilateral Sylvian fissures, central sulci, parieto-occipital fissures, temporal cortices, and frontal cortices.
conclusionsIn this small cohort, prenatal opioid exposure was associated with altered fetal brain development in the third trimester. This adds to the growing body of literature demonstrating that prenatal opioid exposure affects the developing brain.
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