Case Control Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Pediatr. Dec 9, 2023; 12(5): 310-318
Published online Dec 9, 2023. doi: 10.5409/wjcp.v12.i5.310
Brain metabolic profile assessed by magnetic resonance spectroscopy in ‎‎children with Down syndrome: Relation to intelligence quotient
Nesreen Safwat El Feil, Heba S Elmahdy, Rasha Ahmed Elmahdy, Ahmed Abd-Elbasset Aboelezz‎, Heba S Dawoud, Mohammed Al-Beltagi
Nesreen Safwat El Feil, Heba S Elmahdy, Ahmed Abd-Elbasset Aboelezz‎, Heba S Dawoud, Mohammed Al-Beltagi, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Tanta 31527, Al ‎Gharbia, Egypt
Rasha Ahmed Elmahdy, Department of Radiology, University Medical Center, Dr. Sulaiman Al-Habib Medical Group‎, Manama 26671, Manama, Bahrain
Mohammed Al-Beltagi, Department of Pediatrics, University Medical Center, King Abdulla Medical City, ‎Arabian Gulf University, Manama 26671, Manama, Bahrain
Mohammed Al-Beltagi, Department of Pediatrics, University Medical Center, Dr. Sulaiman Al-Habib Medical Group‎, Manama 26671, Manama, Bahrain
Author contributions: Dawoud HS provided the research idea and initiated the study design; El-Feil SE and El Mahdy HS collected the patients and their information; Aboelezz AA was responsible for statistical analysis; Elshafey RA was responsible for the technical part of the study; Also, Elshafey RA oversaw imaging and data analysis; Al-Biltagi M analyzed the data and revised the manuscript. All the authors revised and agreed on the final version of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: We performed the study according to the latest version of Helsinki's Declaration. The Institutional Ethical and Research Review Board of Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, approved the study.
Informed consent statement: All parents, guardians, or next of kin signed informed consent for the minors to participate in this study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: Data are available upon reasonable request.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mohammed Al-Beltagi, MBChB, MD, MSc, PhD, Academic Editor, Chairman, Consultant Physician-Scientist, Professor, Researcher, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Al bahr street, Tanta 31527, Al ‎Gharbia, Egypt. mbelrem@hotmail.com
Received: July 17, 2023
Peer-review started: July 17, 2023
First decision: August 31, 2023
Revised: September 18, 2023
Accepted: September 28, 2023
Article in press: September 28, 2023
Published online: December 9, 2023
Processing time: 144 Days and 3.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This study compared the brain metabolic profiles of children with Down syndrome (DS) using magnetic resonance spectroscopy to healthy controls. The results showed significant reductions in specific metabolic ratios (N-acetyl aspartic acid/creatine and myoinositol/creatine) in the frontal lobes of children with DS compared to controls, as well as decreases in these ratios in the temporal and occipital lobes and basal ganglia. The study also found a significant correlation between intelligence quotient (IQ) and metabolic ratios in children with DS. These findings suggest that brain metabolic profiling could be a valuable predictor of IQ in children with DS.