Human Perinatal Brain Injury and Outcome: MRI Assessemnt

Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston MA

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed study combines the candidate's background in pediatric neuroradiology and physics as well as local expertise in MR imaging of acute brain injury, MR analysis of brain structure and neonatal brain physiology. The goal is to build the candidate's expertise in stateoftheart neuroimaging techniques and her knowledge of neonatal physiology in order to better study the links between MR observables and neonatal brain injury. The candidate is in the perfect environment to extend the MR imaging tools used in the adult population to the neonatal population. The proposed 5year research training Program consists of 1) neonatal neurophysiology, 2) theories and practice of diffusion, perfusion, spectroscopy and structural MR image analysis, and 3) clinical research design, experimental statistics and ethics. The research goal is to develop MR techniques that predict the severity of brain injury in the acute period and to quantitatively assess the structural outcome at 2 years of age. We hypothesize that regions of decreased apparent diffusion (ADC) identified in the acute time period can be associated with different physiological environments, as determined by perfusion weighted imaging and proton spectroscopy. We also hypothesize that these observed physiological variables in the first days of life predict the severity of both the primary and secondary brain injury at 2 years of age. The project is expected to only help the candidate establish an independent research career and to contribute to an understanding of perinatal brain injury.