Brain, heart & kidney assessment of cooled infants at 6-8 years
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Assessment of brain, cardiac and renal systems at 6-8 years in children who have received therapeutic hypothermia for neonatal encephalopathy – a feasibility and outcome study. (CoolMRI STUDY)
IRAS ID
164502
Contact name
Ela Chakkarapani
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 5 months, 1 days
Research summary
Neonatal encephalopathy is a syndrome of disturbed neurological function initiated around the time of birth. Therapeutic hypothermia, which involves cooling the entire body for three days to reduce brain injury and improve physical and mental abilities, has been standard treatment from birth for affected babies since 2010. Despite cooling treatment, many surviving children still have significant physical and mental disabilities. Predicting the degree of this impairment can be difficult, particularly for cognitive and behavioural problems, which are not uncommon. The need for accurate prognostic information to inform parents and supporting services remains a high priority. We need to establish how the brain repairs and remodels following injury in this population of children to inform future therapeutic options.
The infants in our cooled cohort (from 2007) in Bristol had MRI brain scans as babies and developmental assessment at 18-24 months of age. The aim of our study is to (1) assess the feasibility of testing abilities and rescanning cooled children at 6-8 years (2) to compare brain MRI abnormalities of cooled children with age and sex matched control children (3) to determine the relation between brain MRI abnormalities and physical and mental abilities (4) to determine the accuracy of our earlier assessments and scans for predicting the children’s status at 6-8 years.
Infants with neonatal encephalopathy often have abnormal heart and kidney function demonstrated by raised heart enzyme levels and poor urine output. We do not know how the heart and kidney remodels over time. By using echocardiography, blood pressure measurement and urine analysis we can explore the prevalence of any chronic organ dysfunction in this population.
REC name
South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/SW/0148
Date of REC Opinion
3 Sep 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion