Comprehensive MR Fingerprinting for Infants and Young Children at Risk for Developmental Delays

Neuroimaging of infants and young children is increasingly used to monitor brain development that can ultimately influence long-term health and behavioral outcomes. Our research team is one of four centers participating in the Outcomes of Babies with Opioid Exposure (OBOE) study, a national effort to assess the effects of antenatal opioid exposure on baby development. These babies have neonatal opioid withdrawal symptoms at birth and struggle to maintain sleep or stillness during the MR scan. This patient population, and other pediatric patients in general, stress significant unmet needs for motion robust and quantitative imaging techniques for baby developmental assessment. However, there are unique challenges to imaging non-sedated babies using MRI, including high failure rate (no usable MRI data) due to motion, lack of quantitative and sensitive image markers for developmental assessment, and lack of imaging analysis tools specific for fast-evolving baby brains. In this proposal, we have established a multi-PI team, including MR Fingerprinting imaging developers (CWRU), baby imaging analysis and AI experts (UNC) and high-risk neonate clinical experts (UH) to address the unmet needs for baby imaging, and use the imaging tools to assess developmental delays of the opioid- exposed babies. We will achieve our goal with the following aims: Aim 1: Develop a motion-robust and comprehensive MRF scan to provide multiple quantitative tissue property maps for non-sedated babies; Aim 2: Develop baby-centric image processing tools and derive quantitative image features to characterize whole brain tissue changes; and Aim 3: Quantitatively assess developmental changes in opioid-exposed babies and predict the risk of developmental delays. This project will provide an imaging tool to relate quantitative features in brain structure and development to neurologic functions, opening the opportunity for early targeted interventions aimed at improving outcomes. The high quality, fast and motion robust MRF scans will have a broad impact for pediatric patients on improving scan success rate and reducing the sedation rate. The quantitative and comprehensive MRF scans will also have great potentials in assessing longitudinal changes regarding development alternations and therapeutic response. Project Number: 7R01HD112923-02 | Fiscal Year: 2025 | NIH Institute/Center: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) | Principal Investigator: Dan Ma (+2 co-PIs) | Institution: DUKE UNIVERSITY, DURHAM, NC | Award Amount: $583,723 | Activity Code: R01 | Study Section: Special Emphasis Panel[ZRG1-NV-Q(91)S] View on NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7R01HD11292302