BHT was achieved in 22 term infants suffering from moderate-to-severe HIE by head cooling within 6h of birth with the nasopharyngeal temperature being at 34℃．
Fifteen babies were treated with BHT alone（C group）and 7 babies were administered a combination therapy of BHT and edaravone（E group）．
Magnetic resonance imaging（MRI）was performed at the time of hospital discharge. Sixty-two percent of infants in the C group showed abnormal MRI findings, whereas 6 infants in the E group demonstrated normal findings, and only 1 infant exhibited injury to the gray and white matter with cystic changes in the basal ganglia.
The developmental quotient at 3 years of age demonstrated that the C group had an average of 50, whereas the E group had an average of 84.1. The E group demonstrated better prognosis than the C group, however no significant differences between the two groups were observed. In addition, the duration of hospital stays was significantly shorter in the E group（p=0.006）．A transient increase in serum glutamic oxaloacetic transuminase（SGOT）levels was detected in some cases in the E group, but no apparent adverse effects of edaravone usage were noted. Because the number of cases in this study was small, no statistically significant differences between the two groups were observed with regard to developmental prognosis. However, future studies with larger number of cases may reveal more significant findings with regard to developmental prognosis in patients treated with a combination therapy of BHT and edaravone. Therefore, more detailed studies investigating the developmental prognosis need to be conducted.
