Children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) often report cognitive challenges, though the etiology of such remains an area of active investigation. With the advent of treatments that may affect white matter microstructure, understanding the effects of age on white matter aberrancies in NF1 becomes crucial in determining the timing of such therapeutic interventions. A cross-sectional study was performed with diffusion tensor imaging from 18 NF1 children and 26 age-matched controls. Fractional anisotropy was determined by region of interest analyses for both groups over the corpus callosum, cingulate, and bilateral frontal and temporal white matter regions. Two-way analyses of variance were done with both ages combined and age-stratified into early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. Significant differences in fractional anisotropy between NF1 and controls were seen in the corpus callosum and frontal white matter regions when ages were combined. When stratified by age, we found that this difference was largely driven by the early childhood (1-5.9 years) and middle childhood (6-11.9 years) age groups, whereas no significant differences were appreciable in the adolescence age group (12-18 years). This study demonstrates age-related effects on white matter microstructure disorganization in NF1, suggesting that the appropriate timing of therapeutic intervention may be in early childhood.

患有 1 型神经纤维瘤病 (NF1) 的儿童经常报告认知挑战，尽管其病因仍然是一个积极调查的领域。随着可能影响白质微结构的治疗的出现，了解年龄对 NF1 白质异常的影响对于确定此类治疗干预的时机至关重要。使用来自 18 名 NF1 儿童和 26 名年龄匹配的对照的扩散张量成像进行横断面研究。分数各向异性由两组在胼胝体、扣带回和双侧额叶和颞叶白质区域的感兴趣区域分析确定。对两个年龄进行了双向方差分析，并将年龄分层为幼儿期、幼儿期和青春期。当年龄相结合时，在胼胝体和额叶白质区域观察到 NF1 和对照之间分数各向异性的显着差异。当按年龄分层时，我们发现这种差异主要由儿童早期（1-5.9 岁）和儿童中期（6-11.9 岁）年龄组驱动，而青春期年龄组（12-18 岁）没有显着差异年）。这项研究证明了年龄相关对 NF1 中白质微结构紊乱的影响，表明治疗干预的适当时机可能是在儿童早期。9 岁）年龄组，而青春期年龄组（12-18 岁）没有显着差异。这项研究证明了年龄相关对 NF1 中白质微结构紊乱的影响，表明治疗干预的适当时机可能是在儿童早期。9 岁）年龄组，而青春期年龄组（12-18 岁）没有显着差异。这项研究证明了年龄相关对 NF1 中白质微结构紊乱的影响，表明治疗干预的适当时机可能是在儿童早期。