Multichannel Coils and Motion Correction for Developing Brain

描述(申请人提供)：儿童脑疾病，如创伤、肿瘤、癫痫、自闭症和其他发育障碍，常见于5岁以下的儿童。生命的头5年也是发育中的大脑的关键，因为神经元的规格和髓鞘的形成发生了。在这段快速生长和发育的时期，大脑极易受到伤害、暴露或基因表达错误的影响。与成人一样，磁共振成像是评估儿科大脑的首选方法，但目前商业供应商对儿科人群的服务不足。没有一家主要供应商提供最先进的儿科尺寸磁头线圈，也没有第三方供应商使用过时的技术。由于扫描时间较长且可能出现运动伪影，MR需要镇静或麻醉。此外，镇静和麻醉本身也有风险，特别是在非常年轻的人中，这会减少MR的可用性，并增加MR扫描的成本。因此，尽管CT对未成熟大脑中的实质性异常特别不敏感，并伴随着辐射导致认知缺陷的风险增加，但CT仍经常被选为检查对象。该项目的总体目标是创建特定于年龄的32个通道头线圈和加速运动不敏感脉冲序列，允许5岁以下儿童在15分钟内进行高质量的无镇静扫描。本项目的具体目标是：具体目标1：为足月儿、6个月、1岁和2-4岁的婴儿设计、开发和测试32个通道头圈。具体目标2：设计、开发和测试T1(3D闪光)和T2(T2空间)对比度以及扩散张量成像(DTI)的运动不敏感序列。具体目标3：在20名5岁以下的儿童中对这种运动不敏感的加速方案进行真实世界测试。将使用与年龄相适应的行为方法帮助儿童进行15分钟的扫描。我们预计，线圈技术和运动矫正方面的这些进步将显著缩短成像时间，使无需镇静或麻醉的儿科磁共振成像变得更加可行，并使我们最年轻和最脆弱的患者更容易获得磁共振成像。与公共卫生相关：磁共振成像是目前评估幼儿脑异常最安全、最敏感的方法，因为需要镇静或麻醉，风险增加，可获得性有限，而且费用很高。减少儿科专用多通道头部线圈的扫描时间，并设计运动不敏感的脉冲序列，可以在15分钟内完成评估，而不是目前的45分钟。这些进展与年龄相适应的行为技术相结合，很有可能使在这一年轻和脆弱的人群中进行无镇静扫描成为可能。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Abstract Pediatric brain disorders such as trauma, tumors, epilepsy, autism and other developmental disorders are common in children less than 5 years. These first 5 years of life are also key in the developing brain as neuronal specification and myelination occurs. During this time of rapid growth and development the brain is highly vulnerable to injury, exposures or errors in genetic expression. As with adults, MR imaging is the modality of choice for evaluating the pediatric brain yet the pediatric population is currently underserved by commercial vendors. None of the major vendors provide state-of-the-art pediatric sized head coils and third party vendors that do, use outdated technology. Due to the long scan times and likelihood of motion artifacts, MR requires sedation or anesthesia. In addition sedation and anesthesia come with risks of their own, particularly in the very young, reduces the availability of MR and increases the cost of MR scanning. As a result CT is often chosen for even though it is particularly insensitive to parenchymal abnormalities in the immature brain and comes with increased risk of radiation induced cognitive deficits. The overall goal of this project is to create age specific 32 channel head coils and accelerated motion insensitive pulse sequences which allow high quality sedation free scanning in 15 minutes for children less than 5 years of age. The specific aims of this project are: Specific Aim 1: Design, develop and test 32 channel head coils for term infants, 6 month olds, 1 year olds and 2 - 4 year olds. Specific Aim 2: Design, develop and test motion insensitive sequences for T1 (3D FLASH) and T2 (T2 SPACE) contrast as well as Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI). Specific Aim 3: Perform a real world test of this motion insensitive accelerated protocol in 20 children less than 5 years of age. Age appropriate behavioral methods will be used to help the children undergo the 15 minute scan. We expect that these advances in coil technology and motion correction will significantly reduce imaging time and make pediatric MR imaging without sedation or anesthesia more feasible and there make MR imaging more available to our youngest and most vulnerable patients. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: MR imaging is the safest and most sensitive modality for assessing brain abnormalities yet in young children because of the need for sedation or anesthesia, the risk is increased, the availability is limited and the expense is high. Decreasing scan times with pediatric specific multichannel head coils and designing motion insensitive pulse sequences would allow complete evaluation in 15 minutes instead of the current 45 minutes. These advances combined with age appropriate behavioral techniques has a high probability of making sedation free scanning possible in this young and vulnerable population.