Fast optical tomography for imaging seizure activity in newborn infants

我们正在提议开发一种新的方法，通过无害地照射头部来成像新生儿大脑中的癫痫发作。这个项目的动机是我们最近的发现，使用光学技术，在诊断为癫痫发作的婴儿的大脑中，血容量的波动是以前未知的。在英国，每年有超过1000名足月出生的婴儿被诊断患有癫痫发作，这种情况在早产儿中更为常见。癫痫发作通常会引起抽搐性的身体运动，是由于大脑中的异常电活动。这种活动通常可以使用一种称为脑电图（EEG）的方法来测量。然而，脑电图有很大的局限性：它不能检测到大脑深处发生的活动，并且在我们观察到的异常血容量波动期间是正常的。准确的诊断很重要，因为癫痫发作不仅仅是医疗问题的症状，而且本身就是脑损伤的潜在原因。我们提出的工作将导致更好的诊断和理解婴儿癫痫发作，并支持研究更好的treatment.We计划修改现有的光学成像系统，以获取数据的同时，脑电图measurements，并开发新的方案，使图像被收购更快，更少的数据比目前可能的。这对于研究先前观察到的波动，并确定它们如何在大脑不同部位随时间演变至关重要。这项研究将涉及开发一种新的理论分析，并设计处理记录数据的新方法，以提取所需信息。我们还将探索一种将光学和电学测量结合在一起的新方法，以提供电活动和血容量变化的同步三维地图。所有的新技术都将在组织模拟幻影上进行测试，然后对癫痫发作风险高的新生儿进行研究。我们还建议组织一个研讨会，邀请其他有兴趣结合不同的医学成像技术来检查成人和儿童的大脑活动的科学家和医生。

We are proposing to develop a new way of imaging seizures in the brains of newborn babies, by shining light harmlessly across the head. This project is motivated by our recent discovery, using optical techniques, of previously unknown fluctuations in blood volume in the brains of babies diagnosed with seizures. Every year in the UK, over 1000 babies born at term are diagnosed with seizures, and the condition is even more common in infants born prematurely. Seizures usually cause convulsive body movements, and are due to abnormal electrical activity in the brain. This activity can usually be measured using a method known as electroencephalography (EEG). However EEG has significant limitations: it cannot detect activity occurring deep inside the brain and was normal during the unusual blood volume fluctuations we observed optically. Accurate diagnosis is important because seizures are not just a symptom of a medical problem, but are themselves a potential cause of brain injury. The work we propose will lead to better diagnosis and understanding of infant seizures, and underpin research into better treatments.We plan to modify an existing optical imaging system to acquire data simultaneously with EEG measurements, and develop new schemes which enable images to be acquired much faster and with fewer data than is currently possible. This is essential in order to study the fluctuations observed previously, and determine how they evolve over time within different parts of the brain. The research will involve developing a new theoretical analysis, and designing new ways of processing the recorded data to extract the required information. We will also explore a novel way of combining optical and electrical measurements together to provide simultaneous three-dimensional maps of electrical activity and blood volume changes. All the new techniques will be tested on tissue-simulating phantoms before conducting a programme of studies on newborn babies with a high risk of seizures. We also propose to organise a Workshop, inviting other scientists and doctors interested in combining different medical imaging techniques to examine brain activity, in adults as well as children.