Carla Lily Avena-Zampieri^1,2, Lisa Story^1,2, Daniel Cromb¹, Mary Rutherford¹, Alena Uus³, Paddy Slator⁴, and Jana Hutter^1,3
1Perinatal Health and Imaging, Kings College London, London, United Kingdom, ²Women and Children’s Health, Kings College London, London, United Kingdom, ³Department of Biomedical Engineering, Kings College London, London, United Kingdom, ⁴Centre for Medical Image Computing, UCL, London, United Kingdom

Advanced functional MRI techniques were applied to the fetal lungs to increase our understanding of in-utero lung development, imperative for accurate antenatal diagnosis to identify fetuses at highest risk of morbidity. Our preliminary results show that combined T2*-diffusion imaging is a feasible technique to analyse the developing lungs in utero. A reduction in both lung volumes and T2* values associated with fetuses that subsequently delivered preterm was identified - paving the way for future more detailed in depth studies.

Richard J Dury¹, Anbarasu Lourdusamy¹, Dorothee P Auer², Andrew Peet³, Richard G Grundy¹, and Robert A Dineen^2
1Children's Brain Tumour Research Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom, ²Radiological Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom, ³Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Ependymoma is the second most common paediatric malignant brain tumour and has a dismal outcome. WHO histological grade provides insight to prognosis and in most series confers a poor survival. Here we present a method to non-invasively predict the grade of paediatric posterior fossa ependymoma using diagnostic MR imaging (T2w and ADC) and machine learning. We found that WHO Grade II and III tumours can both be predicted with a sensitivity/specificity of 0.7±0.23 and 0.67±0.15 respectively. We believe these results provide the basis for a clinically important aid to decision making in the early stages of treatment.

Ting Liu¹, Jiaojiao Lu¹, Junjun Li¹, and Jian Yang^2
1Department of Radiology, the first Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China, ²the first Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China

Virtual Magnetic Resonance Elastography (vMRE) is based on IVIM, which does not require any mechanical vibration, can assess the elastography of your organization. dysfunctional placenta had higher stiffness than normal placenta has been found by ultrasound shear‑wave elastography. This study intends to use this vMRE method to study the difference in elasticity between the fetus and the maternal compartment.

Ulrike Loebel¹, Lepu Zhou², Gabriele M Rune², Michael Sereda³, Theresa Kungel³, Ullrich Matzner⁴, Jens Fiehler², Jan Sedlacik¹, and Annette Bley^2
1Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, United Kingdom, ²University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany, ³Max-Planck-Institute of Experimental Medicine, Goettingen, Germany, ⁴Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany

Two different disease models, i.e., of Pelizaeus Merzbacher disease (PMD) and Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD), were studied in mice using QSM, MWF, MTR and DTI as well as histopathology to assess their ability to specifically quantify myelin damage. Electron microscopy of PMD showed damaged myelin, but histological micrographs of MLD showed regular brain tissue integrity but with an abnormal presence of macrophages. Only MWF and QSM showed a difference between PMD and WT, but no difference between MLD and WT, which suggests, that MWF and QSM are highly specific to myelin damage.

Yohan van de Looij^1,2, Eduardo Sanches¹, Sadou Saw¹, Audrey Toulotte¹, Analina Da Dilva², Laura Modernell¹, and Stéphane V Sizonenko^1
1Division of Development and Growth, Department of Paediatrics and Gynaecology-Obstetrics, School of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, ²Center for Biomedical Imaging, Animal Imaging Technology section, Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

Injuries to the developing brain due to hypoxia–ischemia (HI) are common causes of neurological disabilities in preterm babies Lactoferrin (Lf) is an iron-binding protein shown to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic properties when administered to mothers as a dietary supplement during pregnancy and/or lactation in preclinical studies of developmental brain injuries. Here, we tested three different doses of dietary maternal Lf supplementation using the postnatal day 3 HI model and evaluated the acute neurochemical damage profile using ¹H MRS and DTI/NODDI. In conclusion, Lf supplementation attenuates, in a dose-dependent manner, the acute and long-term cerebral injury caused by HI.

Akiko Uematsu^1,2, Junichi Hata³, Makoto Fuskushima¹, Noriyuki Kishi², Ayako Muyarama², Takuya Hayashi¹, and Hideyuki Okano^2,4
1BDR Laboratory for Brain Connectomics Imaging, RIKEN, Kobe, Japan, ²CBSLaboratory for Marmoset Neural Architecture, RIKEN, Wako, Japan, ³Graduate School of Human Health Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan, ⁴Department of Physiology, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

Neuronal brain development at early life stage is critical for proper function at later life stages. Here, we delineate the maturational process of marmoset brain structure in both macro and micro level at very early life stage with longitudinal multi-modal MRI images. Integrating multi-modal MRI images provided more detailed and accurate information of changes in tissue property especially for frontal brain regions throughout development than a single-modal image analysis.

Ivan Tkac¹, Katherine M Satrom², and Raghavendra Rao^2
1Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States, ²Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States

Preterm Gunn rat model of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia (NHB) was used to investigate effects of unconjugated bilirubin (UCB) on the developing hippocampus and cerebellum. In this model, sulfadimethoxine was injected (i.p.) to Gunn rat pups on postnatal day 5 to exaggerate NHB effects at a preterm equivalent age. ¹H MRS and MRI results clearly demonstrate that high levels of UCB in early postnatal age critically affects the brain development in a region-specific manner. In this model, cerebellum appears to be much more vulnerable to high levels of UCB than hippocampus resulting in abnormal postnatal development.

Yohan van de Looij^1,2, Jérôme Mairesse^1,3, Julien Pansiot⁴, Manuela Zinni⁴, Stéphane V Sizonenko¹, and Olivier Baud^1,3
1Division of Development and Growth, Department of Paediatrics and Gynaecology-Obstetrics, School of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, ²Center for Biomedical Imaging, Animal Imaging Technology section, Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, ³Division of Neonatology and Pediatric Intensive Care, Children's University Hospital of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, ⁴INSERM UMR1141 NeuroDiderot, University Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France

Brain injuries and subsequent neurodevelopmental impairments observed following Fetal Growth Restriction (FGR) were shown to be associated with an exacerbated neonatal neuro-inflammation. The aim of this work was to characterize a rat model of FGR by advanced diffusion MRI (DTI and NODDI) and functional ultrasounds (fUS). We show in this study that neonatal inflammation lead to transient microstructural damages and subsequent behavioral and functional disabilities at long term. This model mimics very closely clinical reality in babies born following FGR. Innovative neuroimaging tools associated with this neuro-inflammatory model pave the way for their translational use in human neonates.

Dillan F Villavisanis¹, Pulkit Khandelwal², Zachary D Zapatero¹, Connor S Wagner², Daniel Y Cho¹, Liana Cheung¹, Jessica D Blum¹, Jordan W Swanson¹, Jesse A Taylor¹, Paul A Yushkevich ², and Scott P Bartlett^1
1Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States, ²Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Craniofacial surgery requires reconciliation of several factors for deformity reconstruction and aesthetic enhancement.  Here, we present data in developing a racially and ethnically sensitive anthropomorphic database to provide plastic and craniofacial surgeons with a set of “normal” anatomic measurements to optimize aesthetic and reconstructive outcomes.  Images were used to construct composite (template) images with Advanced Normalization Tools (ANTs) and Greedy Tools.   Composite templates demonstrated age-appropriate anatomic measurements as proof of concept.  Application of diffeomorphic algorithms via ANTs to MRI is effective in developing composite templates representing “normal” soft tissue anatomy, which may aid in objectively quantifying anatomic abnormality.