Assessing Cerebral Oxygen Metabolism Changes in Patients With Preeclampsia Using Voxel-Based Morphometry of Oxygen Extraction Fraction Maps in Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the different brain oxygen metabolism statuses in preeclampsia using magnetic resonance imaging and investigate the factors that affect cerebral oxygen metabolism in preeclampsia. Materials and Methods: Forty-nine women with preeclampsia (mean age 32.4 years; range, 18–44 years), 22 pregnant healthy controls (PHCs) (mean age 30.7 years; range, 23–40 years), and 40 non-pregnant healthy controls (NPHCs) (mean age 32.5 years; range, 20–42 years) were included in this study. Brain oxygen extraction fraction (OEF) values were computed using quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) plus quantitative blood oxygen level-dependent magnitude-based OEF mapping (QSM + quantitative blood oxygen level-dependent imaging or QQ) obtained with a 1.5-T scanner. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to investigate the differences in OEF values in the brain regions among the groups. Results: Among the three groups, the average OEF values were significantly different in multiple brain areas, including the parahippocampus, multiple gyri of the frontal lobe, calcarine, cuneus, and precuneus (all P-values were less than 0.05, after correcting for multiple comparisons). The average OEF values of the preeclampsia group were higher than those of the PHC and NPHC groups. The bilateral superior frontal gyrus/bilateral medial superior frontal gyrus had the largest size of the aforementioned brain regions, and the OEF values in this area were 24.2 ± 4.6, 21.3 ± 2.4, and 20.6 ± 2.8 in the preeclampsia, PHC, and NPHC groups, respectively. In addition, the OEF values showed no significant differences between NPHC and PHC. Correlation analysis revealed that the OEF values of some brain regions (mainly involving the frontal, occipital, and temporal gyrus) were positively correlated with age, gestational week, body mass index, and mean blood pressure in the preeclampsia group (r = 0.361–0.812). Conclusion: Using whole-brain VBM analysis, we found that patients with preeclampsia had higher OEF values than controls.