Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is an important cause  of acute neurological damage in newborns (NB) at or near term. In recent years, several trials have shown that moderate hypothermia by total body cooling or selective head,  is an effective intervention to reduce mortality and major disability in infants who survive after a perinatal hypoxic-ischemic attack. Follow–up of these kind of patients is very important in order to estabilish  neurodevelopmental outcome, and specific markers can allow us to detect  predicting sign for good or poor outcome.

We reported on our experience in small series of newborn with HIE treated with hypothermia in whom a comparison between EEG and MRI was used as a first marker for predicting neurodevelopment outcome. We have observed that a depressed EEG activity in the first 72 h of life together with a diffused alteration of basal ganglia at MRI was correlated with a poor neurodevelopmental outcome at 18 months of follow-up.