The proposed study combines the candidate's background in pediatric neuroradiology and physics as well as local expertise in MR imaging of acute brain injury, MR analysis of brain structure and neonatal brain physiology. The goal is to build the candidate's expertise in stateoftheart neuroimaging techniques and her knowledge of neonatal physiology in order to better study the links between MR observables and neonatal brain injury. The candidate is in the perfect environment to extend the MR imaging tools used in the adult population to the neonatal population. The proposed 5year research training Program consists of 1) neonatal neurophysiology, 2) theories and practice of diffusion, perfusion, spectroscopy and structural MR image analysis, and 3) clinical research design, experimental statistics and ethics. The research goal is to develop MR techniques that predict the severity of brain injury in the acute period and to quantitatively assess the structural outcome at 2 years of age. We hypothesize that regions of decreased apparent diffusion (ADC) identified in the acute time period can be associated with different physiological environments, as determined by perfusion weighted imaging and proton spectroscopy. We also hypothesize that these observed physiological variables in the first days of life predict the severity of both the primary and secondary brain injury at 2 years of age. The project is expected to only help the candidate establish an independent research career and to contribute to an understanding of perinatal brain injury.
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| Choe, Myong-Sun; Ortiz-Mantilla, Silvia; Makris, Nikos et al. (2013) Regional infant brain development: an MRI-based morphometric analysis in 3 to 13 month olds. Cereb Cortex 23:2100-17 |
| Grant, P Ellen; Roche-Labarbe, Nadege; Surova, Andrea et al. (2009) Increased cerebral blood volume and oxygen consumption in neonatal brain injury. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 29:1704-13 |
| Yu, Peng; Grant, P Ellen; Qi, Yuan et al. (2007) Cortical surface shape analysis based on spherical wavelets. IEEE Trans Med Imaging 26:582-97 |
| Franceschini, Maria Angela; Thaker, Sonal; Themelis, George et al. (2007) Assessment of infant brain development with frequency-domain near-infrared spectroscopy. Pediatr Res 61:546-51 |
| Grant, P Ellen; Yu, David (2006) Acute injury to the immature brain with hypoxia with or without hypoperfusion. Radiol Clin North Am 44:63-77, viii |
| Nishida, Mitsuhiro; Makris, Nikolaos; Kennedy, David N et al. (2006) Detailed semiautomated MRI based morphometry of the neonatal brain: preliminary results. Neuroimage 32:1041-9 |
| Ozsunar, Yelda; Grant, P Ellen; Huisman, Thierry A G M et al. (2004) Evolution of water diffusion and anisotropy in hyperacute stroke: significant correlation between fractional anisotropy and T2. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 25:699-705 |
| Grant, P Ellen (2004) Structural MR imaging. Epilepsia 45 Suppl 4:4-16 |
| Grant, P Ellen; Matsuda, Kant M (2003) Application of new MR techniques in pediatric patients. Magn Reson Imaging Clin N Am 11:493-522 |
