News and Highlights

The human brain is not one solid mass. Buried within its gray and white matter are a series of four interconnected chambers, called ventricles, which produce cerebrospinal fluid. Abnormalities in the ventricles can give doctors an early warning that fetal brain development might be going awry. Researchers from Children's National Hospital performed volumetric MRIs on the brains of healthy fetuses to assess how the ventricles, cerebrospinal fluid and the rest of the brain normally change over time. 

Researchers from Children's National Hospital have discovered that breast milk optimizes white matter microstructural organization throughout the entire brain more effectively than formula. 

Along with the challenges premature infants face, there is a heightened risk for neurodevelopmental disabilities that often do not fully emerge until the children enter school. A new study by Children’s National Hospital researchers shows that breast-feeding might help with this problem.  

Babies born prematurely are prone to problems later in life—they’re more likely to develop autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and more likely to struggle in school. A new study that’s among the first to investigate brain activity in human fetuses suggests that the underlying neurological issues may begin in the womb.  

Researchers investigate the diagnostic performance, clinical impact, and acceptability of iuMRI to pregnant women for the prenatal diagnosis of fetal brain abnormalities. 

We are utilizing MRI techniques to pick up early deviations in brain growth and development among fetuses diagnosed with critical heart disease as early as the 3rd trimester of pregnancy. Currently, the obstetrical and imaging tools that are available to us have the ability to pick up fetal distress and brain injury but by the time we’re able to gather the evidence of injury, it’s usually too late to reverse the damage.

Subject motion is a major challenge in functional magnetic resonance imaging studies (fMRI) of the fetal brain and placenta during maternal hyperoxia. We propose a motion correction and volume outlier rejection method for the correction of severe motion artifacts in both fetal brain and placenta. 

Our primary objective was to determine the prevalence and spectrum of brain abnormalities detected on conventional clinical MR imaging in fetuses with complex congenital heart disease and, second, to compare the congenital heart disease cohort with a control group of fetuses from healthy pregnancies.