Evaluating MRI brain Perfusion and Diffusion in Neonates v1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Testing perfusion and brain connectivity MRI for investigating and evaluating severity of hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy in the neonatal brain
IRAS ID
249286
Contact name
Brigitte Vollmer
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospitals Southampton
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a type of brain damage that occurs when a baby’s brain does not receive enough oxygen and blood, usually around the time of delivery. Babies with mild symptoms can have a life uninhibited by HIE, whereas those with severe symptoms can experience developmental delays (including neurodevelopmental delay), epilepsy, cognitive issues, and motor skill development delays. The incidence of HIE is about 1.5 per thousand live births. Initial treatment for moderate to severe HIE includes mild hypothermia, i.e. cooling the baby to 33.5 degrees Celsius for 72 hours.
Early evaluation of HIE severity is important to guide treatment, advise parents, and facilitate testing of new treatments. Current methods are imperfect. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI),is normally performed as part of the standard treatment pathway. This occurs about 5 days after birth, and following the period of cooling. While this standard MRI scan provides some information on severity of injury and potential outcome, it is not sufficiently sensitive with regards to accurate assessment of brain injury and outcome prediction. Non-invasive measurement of tissue perfusion, cellularity and neuronal connectivity using MRI is expected to probe key components of the resulting damage and therefore improve accuracy of the evaluation of HIE severity.
The new MRI techniques will be added to the end of this standard scan. The babies are asleep and will be unaware of the extra scans. It will be investigated whether there is a correlation between the results of measurements made in sensitive brain regions and severity of outcome. We will also be able to test whether altered perfusion will help explain high vascular contrast observed in MRI susceptibility-weighted images (for example caused by changed proportions of deoxyhaemoglobin).REC name
North West - Greater Manchester West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/NW/0224
Date of REC Opinion
3 Apr 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion