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Ai Peng Tan^1,2,3, Pei Huang⁴, Shi Yu Chan⁴, Zhen Ming Ngoh⁴, Zi Yan Ong⁴, Xi Zhen Low⁵, Evelyn C. Law^4,6,7, Peter D. Gluckman^4,8, Michelle Z.L. Kee⁴, Yap Seng Chong^4,6,7, Juan H. Zhou⁶, and Michael J. Meaney^4
1Diagnostic Imaging, National University Hospital, Singapore, Singapore, ²Diagnostic Imaging, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore, ³Translational Neuroscience, Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Singapore, Singapore, ⁴Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS), Singapore, Singapore, ⁵Diagnostic Imaging, National University Hospital, SIngapore, Singapore, ⁶National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore, ⁷National University Hospital, Singapore, Singapore, ⁸Liggins Institute, Auckland, New Zealand

Keywords: Normal development, Brain Connectivity

Excessive screen time utilization in childhood has been linked to executive dysfunction. Our primary aim was to investigate the potential influence of screen time in early childhood on brain network topology and later executive function (EF). We collected data on screen time (between ages 0-4 years) (n = 950), followed by MRI brain at age 6 (n = 414) and assessment of executive function at age 7 (n = 620). Screen time in early childhood was significantly associated with emotion processing-cognitive control network integration which mediates the effect of screen time on EF performance.

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Kun Qian¹, Joseph V Hajnal¹, Lucilio Cordero-Grande^1,2, Jonathan O'Muircheartaigh¹, A David Edwards^1,3,4, and Tomoki Arichi^1,3,4
1Department of Perinatal Imaging, Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, ²Biomedical Image Technologies, ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and CIBER-BBN, ISCIII, Madrid, Spain, ³Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom, ⁴MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, King's College London, London, United Kingdom

Keywords: Normal development, New Devices

MRI examinations in young children are typically performed during natural or induced sleep to reduce distress and movement artefacts. However, those approaches have high failure rate and/or carry risks. We describe a system for MR imaging in awake children which combines immersive and interactive MR compatible virtual reality, eye tracking, and robust post-acquisition motion correction. We demonstrate effectiveness in a pilot study with a 2 year old child who used the system on 3 occasions for average 19.5 minutes. The described approach opens new possibilities for awake MR studies in young children for both clinical and research purposes. 

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Min-Hee Lee^1,2, Nathan Sim³, Marie Papamarcos³, Masaki Sonoda⁴, Csaba Juhász^1,2, Eishi Asano^1,5, and Jeong-Won Jeong^1,2
1Pediatrics, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, United States, ²the Translational Imaging Laboratory, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, MI, United States, ³Medical Doctor Program, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, United States, ⁴Neurosurgery, Yokohama City University, Yokohama, Japan, ⁵Neurology, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, MI, United States

Keywords: Neuro, Epilepsy, Prediction of postoperative language improvement in children with epilepsy

We present a novel deep learning-based tract classification to effectively remove false positive tract streamlines from preoperative DWI connectome data of children with medically intractable epilepsy. Compared to the prediction model without the presented classification where uncontrollable false positive tracts significantly limit the accurate prediction of postoperative language improvement using local efficiency values of key hub regions in the receptive and expressive language networks, the prediction model with the presented classification enhanced the accuracy of about 34% up to 100%/88% for the prediction of receptive/expressive language improvement, especially when the local efficiency values were combined with the clinical variables.

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Yanyong Shen¹, Xin Zhao¹, Kaiyu Wang², Qingna Xing¹, Honglei Shang¹, Hongrui Ren¹, Yongbing Sun³, and Xiaoan Zhang^1
1Department of Radiology, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China, ²MR Research China, GE Healthcare, Beijing 100000, PR China, Beijing, China, ³Department of Medical Imaging of Henan Provincial People’s Hospital, Zhengzhou University People’s Hospital, Zhengzhou, China

Keywords: Neuro, Quantitative Imaging, Autism Spectrum Disorder

Distinguishing early Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) from Developmental language disorder (DLD) in clinical practice is challenging as they are usually diagnose by behavioral tests and subjective observation. The emerging technique Synthetic MRI can be used to quantify the changed in biological tissues. Machine learning is also widely used for improvement of diagnostic performance. This study was aimed to identify ASD from DLD by using Synthetic MRI in combination with machine learning methods. Results show that T1 mapping in Synthetic MRI can be used for differentiation of the two diseases and the SVM model with linear kernel have the best performance.

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Jessica Hyland¹, Kay Sindabizera ¹, Minhui Ouyang^1,2, Tianjia Zhu^1,3, Juri Kim^1,3, and Hao Huang^1,2
1Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States, ²Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States, ³Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Keywords: Normal development, Gray Matter

Environmental factors such as socio-economic status (SES) and parental stress have significant impacts on cognitive performance, but their links to brain development during infancy are not known. We collected high-resolution structural MRI, SES and perceived stress scales (PSS) of 70 infants and their caregivers aged 0-20 months to investigate the association of these environmental factors and brain development. The total brain, gray matter, and white matter volumes all increase rapidly with age. Higher SES is significantly correlated with greater cortical volume, particularly in the right hemisphere. Lower PSS tends to be associated with higher cortical volume, though not significantly. 

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Rahel Heule^1,2, Raimund Kottke³, and Ruth Tuura^1,2
1Center for MR Research, University Children's Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland, ²Children's Research Center, University Children's Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, ³Department of Diagnostic Imaging, University Children’s Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland

Keywords: Neuro, Arterial spin labelling

Delayed perfusion in patients with Moyamoya vasculopathy can lead to a bias in CBF quantification, especially for single-delay ASL acquisitions. In this work, we investigate the clinical utility of arterial transit time corrected CBF derived from a 7-delay prototype ASL sequence for assessment of hemodynamically mediated perfusion failure in pediatric Moyamoya patients. The multi-delay ASL acquisition proved successful in capturing the whole distribution of transit times in the investigated patient cohort and may thus be a valid contrast agent-free alternative to DSC-enhanced perfusion imaging.

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Elda Fischi-Gomez¹, Vanesssa Siffredi^2,3,4, Maria Chiara Liverani⁵, Cristina Borradori-Tolsa^2,5, Russia Hà-Vinh Leuchter⁶, and Petra Susan Hüppi^6
1Computer Imaging and Machine Learning, CIBM CHUV-EPFL SP Section, Lausanne, Switzerland, ²Division of Development and Growth, Department of Paediatrics, Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland, Geneva, Switzerland, ³Institute of Bioengineering, Center for Neuroprosthetics, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁴Department of Radiology and Medical Informatics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Switzerland, Geneva, Switzerland, ⁵SensoriMotor, Affective and Social Development Laboratory, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, Geneva, Switzerland, ⁶Division of Development and Growth, Department of Paediatrics, Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Geneva University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland

Keywords: Adolescents, Pediatric

This study compared GM concentration and its developmental trajectory in vey preterm (VPT) and full-term (FT) children aged 6 to 14 years. Widespread abnormal GM concentration was found with complicated patterns of increases/decreases of GM concentration across cortical and subcortical regions. Socio-emotional abilities were association with GM concentration in regions known to be involved in such process for both VPTand FT peers. Our findings suggest the trajectory of brain development following VPT birth may be fundamentally distinctive with impact on socio-emotional abilities.

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Grace McIlvain¹, Abdulhafeez M Khair², Vinay Kandula², Gurcharanjeet Kaur², Andrew Walter², Lauren Averill², Arabinda K Choudhary², Curtis L Johnson^1,2, and Rahul M Nikam^2
1University of Delaware, Newark, DE, United States, ²Neuroradiology, Nemours Children's Health, Wilmington, DE, United States

Keywords: Neuro, Tumor

Pediatric brain tumors have developmental consequences even when prognoses are favorable. Mechanical characterization using magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) has previously revealed adult gliomas are softer than brain tissue. However, pediatric tumors are known to differ behaviorally and cytoarchitecturally from adult tumors. Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) imparts genetic predisposition to gliomas, but also results in spongiform regions in white matter tissue. Here we use MRE for the first time in NF1 and in pediatric low-grade gliomas and we find that pediatric gliomas are softer than reference tissue, while spongiforms are stiffer.

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Yohan van de Looij^1,2, Eduardo Sanches¹, Ho Dini¹, Audrey Toulotte¹, Laetitia Baud³, Quentin Barraud³, Rodrigo Araneda⁴, Yannick Bleyenheuft⁴, Sylvain Brochard^5,6, Gregoire Courtine³, and Stéphane Sizonenko^1
1Department of Paediatrics and Gynaecology-Obstetrics, Division of Development and Growth, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, ²Center for Biomedical Imaging, Animal Imaging Technology section, Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, ³Center for Biomedical Imaging, Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁴Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium, ⁵Physical and medical rehabilitation department, CHRU Brest, Brest, France, ⁶Paediatric physical and medical rehabilitation department, Fondation ILDYS, Brest, France

Keywords: Neonatal, Brain, Cerebral palsy, preclinical animal model

Injury to the developing brain is a major cause of Cerebral Palsy (CP) leading to motor and cognitive disabilities. HABIT-ILE is a 2-week intensive sensorimotor rehabilitation program with proven effects decreasing motor impairments in infants with CP. Here, we combined early environmental enrichment (EE) and treadmill motor training (TT) to model HABIT-ILE (EETT) for treating experimental CP in rats assessing then histological and microstructural parameters (diffusion MRI at 9.4T). Exvivo DTI/NODDI showed altered brain microstructure in CP rats not reversed by HABIT-ILE. HABIT-ILE modulated BDNF signaling and decreased the over-expression of proteins involved in excitatory function induced by CP.

Dong Liu¹, Weiyin Vivian Liu², Yuanyuan Qin¹, Guojun Ding¹, and Wenzhen Zhu^1
1Department of Radiology, Tongji Hosptial of Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, ²MR Research, GE Healthcare, Beijing, China

Keywords: Normal development, Endocrine, pituitary gland

It is difficult to distinguish IPP from CPP in the clinical diagnosis. GnRH stimulation test has long been considered the gold standard for the diagnosis of CPP and evaluation of hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis activation, but it is a high cost and an invasive approach. To simplify examination and dig out an alternative method is necessary. In our study, analysis of clinical data, adenohypophyseal MRI features and laboratory characteristics of PP girls help us better comprehensive PP. A combined model of adenohypophyseal MRI features and clinical characteristics improved the diagnostic efficacy of PP and provided us a non-invasive and reliable diagnostic method.

Yi Lu¹, PinFa Zou¹, LingFeng Zhang¹, lu han², and Zhihan Yan^1
1Radiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children’s Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China, ²Philips Healthcare, Shanghai, China

Keywords: Adolescents, Endocrine

Early identification of precocious puberty (PP) is important to guarantee the growth and development of children. The aim of this study was to propose a robust machine learning model that incorporate information from pituitary MRI images, carpal bone age, gonadal ultrasound, baseline sex hormone tests, and clinical information to identify idiopathic central precocious puberty (ICPP). The experiments show that the AUCs are 0.860, 0.862, and 0.866 respectively for the training set, internal validation sets, and external validation sets. The performance suggests that the presented model could be an alternative clinical approach.

Yi Lu¹, Fangfang Chen¹, Chenyi Yu², Tao Chen³, lu han⁴, Zhihan Yan¹, and Yuchuan Fu^1
1Radiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children’s Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China, ²Pediatrics, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children’s Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China, ³Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, ⁴Philips Healthcare, Shanghai, China

Keywords: Adolescents, Brain Connectivity, obstructive sleep apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in children can cause deficits in cognition. The purpose of this study was to explore the underlying mechanisms of OSA-related cognitive impairment by investigating the altered topology of brain white matter networks in children with OSA. Based on graph theory and mediating effects analysis, we discovered that OSA had significantly higher global assortativity than control group, and that the nodal clustering coefficients of temporal lobes mediated the relationship between the symptom severity of OSA and the verbal comprehension index. Our findings provided a further neuroimaging evidence of impaired cognitive function in children with OSA.

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jie hu^1,2, yanli yang¹, haifeng ran¹, jingjing zhang³, cheng he⁴, heng liu¹, and tijiang zhang^1
1Department of Radiology, the Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, zunyi, China, ²Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, beijing, China, ³Department of Radiology, Mianyang Hospital of T.C.M, mianyang, China, ⁴Department of Radiology, Chongqing University Central Hospital,, chongqing, China

Keywords: Neuro, Brain

This study were preliminarily established an individualized diagnosis model of communication dysfunction in children with bilateral spastic cerebral palsy based on cortical morphological parameters extracted from structure magnetic resonance images by using Support Vector Machines classification algorithm. This may provide a novel idea for the diagnose of communication disorder in children with BSCP.

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Prativa Sahoo¹, Caroline Köhler², Irini Gkalimani¹, Paul Kunte², Peter Dechent³, Gunter Helms⁴, Sean Deoni⁵, Hagen H Kitzler², and Steffi Dreha Kulaczewski^1
1Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany, ²Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden, Dresden, Germany, ³Department of Cognitive Neurology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany, ⁴Lund University, Lund, Sweden, ⁵Bill and Medlinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA, United States

Keywords: Neuro, White Matter, DTI , MTI

X-linked Pelizaeus Merzbacher disease is characterized by failure of myelin formation and subsequent axonal damage. Severity of disease courses varies depending on the underlying gene mutation. Eight male patients were recruited for the study. MR-imaging protocol included MTI, MWI for evaluation of myelin related parameters and DTI for assessment of axonal integrity. Decreased values in quantitative MTI and MWI parameter maps and ROI analyses indicated severe myelin deficit in all patients. However, FA reflected various degrees of axonal involvement among patients with deferent genotypes. Multimodal MRI can facilitate assessment of simultaneous disease processes in childhood hypomyelinating leukodystrophies.            

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Yi Zhuang¹, Chenchen Hua², Lu Qiu¹, and Haoxiang Jiang^1
1Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Wuxi Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, China, ²Department of Radiology, Wuxi People's Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, China

Keywords: Neuro, Epilepsy

Epilepsy is the most common chronic neurological disorder with significant morbidity and mortality. Frontal lobe epilepsy is a common type of seizure after temporal lobe epilepsy, which makes the diagnosis of frontal lobe epilepsy and its treatment difficult due to its presence of not only motor symptoms but also other autonomic symptoms during seizures. Arterial spin labeling can be used to identify brain regions and brain network lesions associated with the propagation of epileptiform activity, and is of higher investigative value especially in children with negative MRI.

keyword: Epilepsy, brain network, arterial spin labeling, pediatrics

Congyu Liao^1,2, Xiaozhi Cao^1,2, Siddharth Srinivasan Iyer^1,3, Sophie Schauman^1,2, Zihan Zhou⁴, Xiaoqian Yan⁵, Quan Chen^1,2, Ting Gong⁶, Zhe Wu⁷, Hongjian He⁴, Jianhui Zhong^4,8, Adam B Kerr^2,9, Kalanit Grill-Spector⁵, and Kawin Setsompop^1,2
1Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States, ²Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States, ³Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States, ⁴Center for Brain Imaging Science and Technology, College of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, ⁵Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States, ⁶Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, United States, ⁷Techna Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada, ⁸Department of Imaging Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, United States, ⁹Stanford Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States

Keywords: Normal development, Microstructure

In this work, we developed an optimized ViSTa-MRF method, which combined Visualization of Short Transverse relaxation time component (ViSTa) technique with MR Fingerprinting (MRF), to achieve high-fidelity whole-brain myelin-water fraction (MWF) and T₁/T₂/PD mapping at sub-millimeter isotropic resolution. To achieve high image quality, fast acquisition, and memory-efficient reconstruction, the proposed ViSTa-MRF sequence leverages a CRLB-optimized flip-angle (FA) protocol, SNR-efficient 3D spiral-projection sampling scheme and a GPU-based subspace reconstruction. We also applied the proposed method to enable high-resolution assessment of MWF/T₁/T₂ for infant brain development as well as for post-mortem brain sample.

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S Senthil Kumaran¹, N M Shruthi², Priyanka Bhat³, Sheffali Gulati², and Tapan Kumar Gandhi^4
1Department of NMR, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India, ²Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India, ³Center for BioMedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India, ⁴Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, New Delhi, India

Keywords: Neuro, fMRI (task based)

Hemiparetic cerebral palsy patients were administered Virtual reality therapy (VRT) in addition to constraint induced movement therapy (CIMT) in VRT group, and CIMT alone in CIMT group in a randomised trial. Task based functional MRI of left and right fist clenching and structural data were acquired in a 3T MR scanner. Cortical thickness, gyrification (using cat12 toolbox) and functional connectivity (using conn toolbox) results revealed presence of salience and motor networks in the VRT group, highlighting better recovery mechanism stimulated by virtual reality based training. 

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Paul Cawley^1,2,3, Francesco Padormo^1,4, Daniel Cromb^1,5, Alessandra Maggioni⁵, Jennifer Almalbis¹, Miguel De La Fuente Botell⁵, Massimo Marenzana¹, Rui Teixeira⁴, UNITY Consortium⁶, Steve Williams⁶, Serena Counsell¹, Tomoki Arichi^1,3, Mary Rutherford^1,3, Joseph V Hajnal¹, and A David Edwards^1,3,5
1Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, ²Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Evelina Children's hospital, London, United Kingdom, ³MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, ⁴Hyperfine, Inc., Connecticut, CT, United States, ⁵Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Evelina Children’s Hospital, London, United Kingdom, ⁶Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, King's College London, London, United Kingdom

Keywords: Neuro, Low-Field MRI

Perinatal brain injury and congenital brain abnormalities are common. Access to definitive neuro imaging is limited globally, particularly within resource constrained settings, or in infants too sick to transfer to scanning departments. New devices utilising ultra-low field magnets may herald a revolution in lower-cost high-access MRI, but preliminary results using manufacturer standard adult-optimised sequences has produced suboptimal image quality in neonates. We performed optimisation of low field MRI pulse sequence design and demonstrate enhanced visualization of key brain tissues and neuroanatomical structures. Neonatal-specific sequences show promising performance across a range of gestational maturities and perinatal brain abnormalities.

Yifan Shuai¹, Ruolin Li¹, Yihan Wu¹, Zhiyong Zhao¹, and Dan Wu^1
1Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

Keywords: Neonatal, Normal development, functional plasticity

The present study aimed to investigate how the brain entropy (BEN) changes with age during early development and whether it exists differences between term- and preterm-born neonates. The results found that the BEN in visual-motor cortex was positively correlated with PMA but had no significant correlation with GA, which showed an increase in preterm- than term-born neonates with matched PMA. Moreover, both age and preterm have a significant effect on the functional connectivity between visual-motor cortex and other regions. These findings suggest the functional plasticity development of visual-motor cortex is modulated by early postnatal experience in human neonates.

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Daniel Cromb^1,2, Alexandra Bonthrone^1,2, Alessandra Maggioni¹, Paul Cawley^1,3, Ralica Dimitrova^1,4, Christopher Kelly¹, Lucilio Cordero-Grande^1,5, Olivia Carney¹, Alexia Egloff-Collado¹, Emer Hughes¹, Joseph V Hajnal^1,2, John Simpson^1,6, Kuberan Pushparajah^1,6, Mary Rutherford^1,3, A David Edwards¹, Jonathan O'Muircheartaigh^1,3,4, and Serena J Counsell^1,2
1Centre for the Developing Brain, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, ²Biomedical Engineering Department, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, ³MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, ⁴Department for Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, ⁵Biomedical Image Technologies, ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and CIBER-BBN, Madrid, Spain, ⁶Paediatric Cardiology, Evelina London Children's Hospital, London, United Kingdom

Keywords: Neuro, Brain, Cardiovascular

Infants with congenital heart disease (CHD) are at risk of neurodevelopmental impairments, which may be associated with impaired brain growth. We mapped brain volumes from pre- and postoperative brain MRI in 36 infants with CHD undergoing cardiac surgery or intervention to normative curves derived from 219 healthy infants. Perioperative brain growth was impaired, and was associated with clinical and surgical risk factors, including higher preoperative serum creatinine levels, older postnatal age at surgery, longer cardiopulmonary bypass duration and longer postoperative intensive care stay. Brainstem and deep grey matter growth appear particularly vulnerable to clinical factors.