Development of Advanced Techniques for MR of the Newborn Brain

描述（由申请人提供）：最近在1.5特斯拉下使用MR兼容孵化器的研究已经清楚地证明了新生儿脑损伤检测和表征的临床和研究价值。鉴于美国每年超过54万的超高早产率及其极高的人力和经济成本，新生儿MRI是放射学护理中至关重要的进步。新生儿核磁共振研究面临的一个主要障碍是，核磁共振硬件和软件主要是为成人大脑应用而开发和验证的，通常不适合新生儿研究。通过拟议的生物工程合作伙伴关系，我们的目标是开发和翻译新的专业3T MR成像工具，用于对早产儿和足月新生儿的脑成熟和损伤进行无创表征。我们在哈佛医学院的合作伙伴Lawrence Wald博士及其同事在高通道数相控阵线圈方面处于世界领先地位，并且在设计和制造用于新生儿成像的专用磁共振线圈方面装备精良。斯坦福大学电气工程系John Pauly博士的团队在射频设计、磁共振序列开发和图像重建技术方面享誉全球。加州大学旧金山分校的研究人员组成了一个在新生儿磁共振成像方面经验丰富的多学科团队，包括儿科神经放射科医生、儿科神经科医生、新生儿护士和成像生物工程师，他们拥有将基本磁共振技术转化为可靠的临床研究工具的专业知识。通过这种生物工程伙伴关系，我们的目标是设计、实施和测试所提出的技术和工具，以改善新生儿患者的磁共振成像。据我们所知，这将是第一个新生儿MR项目：1)开发专门用于早产儿和足月儿的3T多通道磁共振线圈；2)开发快速相控阵列3T磁共振光谱成像技术，采用新型乳酸和谷氨酰胺&谷氨酸检测技术，定量测定已知在脑损伤中改变的细胞代谢物水平；3)开发并应用多通道高分辨率和高角度扩散技术，表征白质微结构发育。4)在早产儿队列中应用这些先进的MR技术来量化代谢、扩散和形态学参数，以确定规范值（在结果正常的早产儿中）和脑损伤病例中的偏差。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Recent studies at 1.5 Tesla using MR compatible incubators have clearly demonstrated clinical and research value for the detection and characterization of neonatal brain injury. With the extraordinarily high premature birth rate of over 540,000 per year in the US and its extremely high human and economic costs, neonatal MRI is a critically important advance in radiological care. A major obstacle facing neonatal MR research is that MR hardware and software have been developed and validated primarily for adult brain applications and are typically suboptimal for neonatal studies. Through the proposed bioengineering partnership, we aim to develop and translate new specialized 3T MR imaging tools for the non-invasive characterization of brain maturation and injury in premature and term newborns. Our partners at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Lawrence Wald and colleagues, are the world leaders in high channel count phased array coils and are well-equipped to design and build dedicated MR coils for neonatal imaging. Dr. John Pauly's group at Stanford University's Electrical Engineering Department is world renowned in RF design, MR sequence development and image reconstruction techniques. The UCSF investigators comprise a multidisciplinary team highly experienced in performing neonatal MR imaging including pediatric neuroradiologists, pediatric neurologists, neonatal nurses, and imaging bioengineers with expertise in translating basic MR techniques into reliable clinical research tools. Through this Bioengineering partnership, we aim to design, implement, and test the proposed techniques and tools to improve MR imaging of newborn patients. This will be the first neonatal MR project to our knowledge to: 1) develop 3T multi-channel MR coils specifically for premature and term infants, 2) develop fast phased-array 3T MR spectroscopic imaging techniques with novel lactate and glutamine & glutamate detection techniques for quantitating cellular metabolite levels that are known to be altered in brain injury, 3) develop and apply multichannel high resolution and high-angular diffusion techniques to characterize white matter microstructural development, 4) apply these advanced MR techniques in a cohort of premature newborns to quantify metabolic, diffusion, and morphological parameters to define normative values (in those with normal outcome) and the deviations in cases of brain injury. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Recent studies at 1.5 Tesla using MR compatible incubators have clearly demonstrated clinical and research value for the detection and characterization of neonatal brain injury. With the extraordinarily high premature birth rate of over 540,000 per year in the US and its extremely high human and economic costs, neonatal MRI is a critically important advance in radiological care. Through the proposed bioengineering partnership, we aim to advance this technology to create and validate new specialized 3T MR imaging tools for the non-invasive characterization of brain maturation and injury in premature and term newborns.