Kim Annink

84 Chapter 4 Validation: correlation with MRI and histology There was a moderate correlation between the CUS and MRI scoring system in cohort I (Spearman’s rho=0.67; p<0.001; Figure 3). In the six most severely affected infants, an MRI was not feasible because the infants were clinically too unstable. Figure 3: The correlation between the MRI and CUS scoring system in cohort I. Of the 26 infants in cohort I that died during the neonatal period, 17 infants (65%) underwent postmortem examination. In all these 17 infants, CUS abnormalities were confirmed with histology. The histological damage was more extensive than diagnosed with CUS. DISCUSSION We developed a scoring system to structurally score CUS abnormalities in (near-) term infants with HIE. The scoring system was associated with neurodevelopmental outcome and includes composite scores of white matter and deep grey matter involvement, both of which contain multiple separate items. This scoring system was