Advanced Fetal & Pediatric CNS Imaging

Monday 22 April 2013

Qiaowen Yu¹, Tina Jeon¹, Shuwei Liu², and Hao Huang^1
1Advanced Imaging Research Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States, ²Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China

High cortical FA in immature cortical plate is related to the organized radial glia. Dendrite and axon growth and synapse formation in the cortical plate disrupt those organized radial glia, causing FA decrease. In this study, we acquired high quality DTI data of human fetal brain at three landmark time points, 19, 35 and 40 weeks of gestation (wg). FA of the complete cortical plate was mapped to the entire cortical surface to reveal the heterogeneous microstructural profile at these three time points. Accelerated cortical development in most cortical areas except BA or M1C/S1C was revealed from 35 to 40wg.

Jill Britt De Vis¹, Jeroen Hendrikse¹, Nikki Dieleman¹, Floris Groenendaal², Karina J. Kersbergen², Linda S. de Vries², Manon J.N.L. Benders², and Esben Thade Petersen^1
1Radiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands, ²Neonatology, Wilhelmina Children's Hospital, Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands

Neonatal MR imaging has distinct properties compared to adult MR imaging. Assumptions, used to quantify perfusion in an Arterial Spin Labeling MR experiment, may not hold true. In this study the longitudinal relaxation rate of blood was measured in a large cohort of neonates. In addition, the influence on perfusion quantification was evaluated and the relation with hematocrit was investigated.

Ning Ning¹, Xianjun Li^1,2, Jie Gao³, Yumiao Zhang¹, Jianghong Han¹, Xue Luo¹, Gang Niu¹, Youmin Guo¹, Ed X. Wu⁴, and Jian Yang^1
1Department of radiology, the first affiliated hospital of medical college, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China, ²Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi' an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China, ³Department of radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Medical College, Xi¡¯an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China, ⁴Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

This study aims to determine the differences of deep medullary venous between hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) and normal neonates by a quantitative method. 7 normal and 20 HIE neonates were examined by using an ESWAN (enhanced T2* weighted angiography) sequence. In the minimal intensity projection (mIP) map, 3 regions of interest (ROIs) were defined, including deep medullary veins in bilateral brain regions of centrum semiovale, deep white matters of frontal lobe and temporal-occipital junction. Vein-ROI ratio (VRR=vein area/ROI area) was calculated in these ROIs respectively. Results showed increased VRR values in deep medullary veins in HIE group versus normal group (p<0.001), which indicated that VRR may be a marker for the degree of hypoxia in neonates with HIE. This quantitative method is potentially valuable at depicting venous prominence for predicting degree of injury after HIE.

Xiawei Ou¹, Charles M. Glasier¹, Raghu H. Ramakrishnaiah¹, Sarah B. Mulkey², Vivien L. Yap², and Jeffrey R. Kaiser^2
1Radiology, Arkansas Children's Hospital; University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, United States, ²Pediatrics, Arkansas Children's Hospital; University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, United States

Permissive hypercapnia is a common ventilatory strategy used to avoid ventilator-induced lung injury. However, recent studies suggest that hypercapnia may be associated with increased risk of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) in extremely low birth-weight (ELBW) infants. In this study, we used a randomized controlled trial approach to assign ELBW infants to permissive hypercapnia ventilation or normocapnic ventilation during the first week of life, and compared the cranial ultrasound findings of IVH during the first week and MRI findings of blood products at term-equivalent age, to determine whether the occurrence of hemorrhage is different between the two groups. Our results suggest that ELBW infants with hypercapnic ventilation may be at higher risk of intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) in the brain.

Peiying Liu¹, Hao Huang¹, Nancy K. Rollins², Tina Jeon¹, Lina Chalak³, and Hanzhang Lu^1
1Advanced Imaging Research Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States, ²Department of Radiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States, ³Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States

Cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2) is thought to be a direct index of neural activity. However, in vivo measurement of CMRO2 has proven challenging particularly for neonatal population. In this study, we proposed a CMRO2 method for neonates that can be used in any facility with a standard MRI scanner. Preliminary testings have shown great promises of this approach. Although it is a global measure and lacks regional information, several features of this technique (no exogenous agent, <5 min in scan duration, available on a standard 3T) make it a potentially important tool in functional assessment of neonatal population.

Anand Pandit^1,2, Emma Robinson³, Paul Aljabar¹, Gareth Ball¹, Ioannis S. Gousias⁴, Zi Wang⁵, Giovanni Montana⁵, Jo Hajnal¹, Daniel Rueckert⁶, Serena J. Counsell⁷, and A. David Edwards^1
1Centre for the Developing Brain, King's College, London, London, United Kingdom, ²Centre for the Developing Brain, Imperial College, London, London, London, United Kingdom, ³FMRIB, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, ⁴Centre for the Developing Brain, Imperial College, London, London, United Kingdom, ⁵Statistics Section, Department of Mathematics, Imperial College, London, London, United Kingdom, ⁶Department of Computing, Imperial College, London, London, United Kingdom, ⁷Centre for the Developing Brain, King's College London, London, London, United Kingdom

Combining a novel pipeline which maps whole-brain structural connectivity with sophisticated statistical techniques, namely sparse penalised regression and stability selection, we explore the influence of two factors predicted to affect connectivity in the early infant population: development and the degree of prematurity at birth. White matter tracts joining anterior structures were positively associated with development, while more extreme prematurity at birth was related to widespread reductions in connections involving all cortical lobes and several subcortical structures.

Shoko Yoshida¹, Andreia V. Faria², Diane L. Damiano³, Chunxiao Zhou⁴, Alexander Hoon⁵, Elaine Stashinko⁵, Kenichi Oishi¹, James J. Pekar^1,6, and Susumu Mori^1,6
1The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, ²The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, ³National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States, ⁴Rehabilitation Medicine Department, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States, ⁵Division of Neurology and Developmental Medicine, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, ⁶F. M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, United States

The anatomical heterogeneity of cerebral palsy (CP) makes systematic anatomy-function evaluation difficult. We used atlas-based analysis of MP-RAGE, DTI, and resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) data, followed by principal component analysis of image-derived outcome measures, to summarize differences between children with CP and neurotypical children. This revealed changes in deep white matter, ventricles, and thalamus which segregated CP and neurotypical children in the MP-RAGE and DTI data, and a general reduction in inter-parcel correlation in the rs-fMRI data, along with more scattered distributions in CP. This approach may allow more detailed anatomy-function evaluation in CP.

Julia P. Owen¹, Yi-Ou Li¹, Etay Ziv¹, Zoe Strominger², Jacquelyn Gold², Polina Bukshpun², Mari Wakahiro², Elliott Sherr², and Pratik Mukherjee^1
1Radiology, UCSF, San Francisco, CA, United States, ²Neurology, UCSF, San Francisco, CA, United States

In this work, we investigate he alterations to the global network architecture in the brains of subjects with agenesis of the corpus callosum (AgCC). AgCC is a common congenital brain malformation that results in the complete absence of the corpus callosum. The full extent of the changes in white matter connectivity in AgCC has not been explored. Here, we use MR structural connectomics to reveal the difference in the brain network topology between AgCC and healthy control subjects. This systems level approach motivates the future application of connectomics to the malformed brain.

Feng Shi¹, Li Wang¹, Ziwen Peng^1,2, Chong-Yaw Wee¹, and Dinggang Shen^1
1Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, ²Department of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Previous studies suggest autism has atypical brain connectivity patterns. In this study, we introduce human brain connectome techniques to investigate the autistic brain in a network level. A total of 49 autistic children and 51 typically developed controls were selected from NDAR. We constructed the brain connectome analysis using 68 cortical regions as nodes and their inter-regional cortical thickness correlations as edges. Results show that autism has more weights of connections for the regions with self-related functions. Increase within frontal lobe and the decrease in frontal-related connections were found, which may contribute to the re-organization of autistic brain.

Jessica L. Wisnowski^1,2, Vincent J. Schmithorst², Rafael C. Ceschin^3,4, Patricia Corby⁵, Hanna Damasio¹, and Ashok Panigrahy^2
1Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States, ²Radiology, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ³Radiology, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ⁴Biomedical Informatics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ⁵Dentistry, New York University, New York, NY, United States

Long-range corticocortical and thalamocortical connections form the basis for the default mode (DMN) and other networks. These undergo critical periods of development during late fetal gestation. We examined whether preterm birth altered the developing structural and functional network topology of the human connectome using combined diffusion tensor (DTI) and fMRI methods in a sample of preadolescent children. DTI revealed microstructural differences in anterior and posterior deep white matter and decreased interhemispheric connectivity between the posterior-medial DMN hubs and the anterior DMN hub with the thalamus. fMRI analyses revealed that these structural differences were associated decreased cost-efficiency in the functional connectome.