Neuroimaging: Headache or essential tool in the ICU?
Neuroimaging: Headache or Essential Tool in the Intensive Care Unit?
Presented by
Patrick McQuillen, M.D.
Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology
University of California, San Francisco
Children with congenital heart disease experience behavioral, emotional, cognitive and motor impairments with high frequency, suggesting widespread brain dysfunction. The etiology for this is unknown and multifactorial, involving deranged brain development and acquired brain injury. Neuroimaging studies in the fetal and postnatal period can provide unique insights into the timing and nature of brain injury and disrupted brain development. However, these studies are expensive and difficult to obtain in critically ill newborns. This presentation will review key discoveries made with this approach, allowing the audience to consider whether such insight is worth the cost and effort needed to perform such research studies.
Learning Objectives:
Attendees of this session will be able to:
- Describe timing and characteristics of brain injury in newborns with congenital heart disease.
- Identify current knowledge regarding association of injuries with neurodevelopmental outcome.
- Recognize some potential neurobiologic mechanisms of altered brain development in congenital heart disease.