In 6-y-old children born extremely preterm, conduit arteries are of similar or smaller size than in controls born at term, and they have no signs of accelerated intima media thickening or arterial stiffening. While these findings are reassuring for these children and their families, the causal pathways from preterm birth to adult cardiovascular disease remain unknown.

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Results Weight-corrected left ventricular mass (LVM, g/kg) and end-diastolic volume (EDV, cm 3 /kg) for the preterm cohort at term-corrected age (LVM -mean 1.89, 95% CI 1.89 ± 0.21; EDV -mean 3.42, 95% CI 3.42 ± 0.34) were significantly greater than both the preterm cohort at birth (LVM 1.05, 1.05 ± 0.08, p = 0.0002; EDV 4.89, 4.89 ± 0.59, p = 0.0008) and healthy term controls (LVM 0.95, 0.95 ± 0.18, p = 0.001; EDV 2.16, 2.16 ± 0.38, p = 0.0006). Conclusions Neonatal MRI with manual ventricular segmentation quantifies preterm gross ex-utero left ventricular growth, highlighting differences from in-utero cardiac development. Increases in preterm LVM and EDV may represent pathological remodelling or physiological ex-utero adaptation.We have constructed provisional computational atlases that currently allow visual comparisons of size and shape, but which after further analysis will enable more sophisticated quantification and characterisation of preterm ventricular growth and remodelling.