Development of Analysis Tools to Enhance Fetal Neurological Assessment

描述(申请人提供)：在阿肯色州医科大学，我们安装了世界上第一个专门为胎儿和新生儿评估而设计和改进的脑磁图(MEG)系统。这个名为SARA(Squid阵列生殖评估)的非侵入性系统由151个主要的超导传感器组成，这些传感器探测人体的生物磁场。自安装SARA以来，朝着为发育中的胎儿开发临床神经学评估工具的最终目标取得了重大进展。我们的第一个目标是进行诱发反应测量，并开发处理算法来提取对外部刺激(即听觉和视觉)的反应。在经历了各种处理算法的迭代后，正交投影法的干扰消除被发现是稳健的，并且相对容易自动化。这一程序已经在大量的胎儿记录中成功测试，似乎足以在可检测到的情况下提取对刺激的诱发反应。然而，由于没有刺激锁定反应，对自发脑活动的提取和分析一直是更具挑战性的。目前评估和识别胎儿自发性脑磁图的方法是基于对基于新生儿EEC的特征形态的时间痕迹的视觉检查。虽然我们已经证明了记录自发活动的可行性，但我们需要改进对胎儿自发脑模式的检测。这项建议有两个具体目标，一个是通过使用先进的空间滤波处理方法来改进胎儿自发脑磁图信号的提取，另一个是应用这一技术来评估特定组有神经问题风险的胎儿的自发脑活动。我们尤其想要研究宫内生长受限(IUGR)胎儿，因为他们受损的宫内环境会影响潜在的生长和大脑发育。IUGR胎儿的自发脑活动特征将与正常发育的胎儿进行比较。总体目标如下：1.利用先进的信号处理方法，提高对自发胎儿脑磁图信号的检测能力。2.评估宫内发育受限胎儿的胎儿自发脑活动信号，因为他们面临神经发育不良结局的潜在风险。相关性：评估胎儿大脑功能是一个非常宝贵的目标，因为我们目前缺乏直接监测这类功能的手段。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): At University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences we have installed the world's first magnetoencephalography (MEG) system specifically designed and modified for fetal and newborn assessment. The non-invasive system called SARA (Squid Array for Reproductive Assessment) consists of 151 primary superconducting sensors which detect biomagnetic fields from the body. Since the installation of SARA, significant progress has been made towards the ultimate goal of developing a clinical neurological assessment tool for the developing fetus. Our first goal was to perform evoked response measurements and develop processing algorithms to extract the response to external stimulus i.e. auditory and visual. After going through various iterations of processing algorithms, interference elimination by orthogonal projection was found to be robust and relatively easy to automate. This procedure has been successfully tested in a large number of fetal recordings and appears to be adequate to extract evoked responses to stimuli when detectable. However, the extraction and analysis of spontaneous brain activity has been more challenging since there is no stimulus locked response. The current method for evaluating and identifying fetal spontaneous MEG is based on visual examination of time traces for characteristic morphology based on neonatal EEC. Although we have shown the feasibility of recording spontaneous activity, we need to improve the detection of the fetal spontaneous brain patterns. This proposal has two specific aims, one is to improve fetal spontaneous MEG signal extraction by using advance spatial filter processing methods and the other is to apply this technology to assess the spontaneous brain activity in a specific group of fetuses who are at risk for developing neurological problems. We particularly want to investigate intrauterine growth restricted (IUGR) fetuses since their compromised intrauterine environment affects potential growth and brain development. The spontaneous brain activity characteristics of IUGR fetuses will be compared to the fetus with normal growth. The overall aims are listed below: 1. Enhance the detection of spontaneous fetal magnetoencephalographic signals using advanced signal processing methods. 2. Assess fetal spontaneous brain activity signals in intrauterine growth restricted fetuses since they are at potential risk for adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. Relevance: Evaluation of fetal cerebral functions presents a very precious goal since we currently lack the means to directly monitor such functions.