Children with cerebral palsy are set to benefit from the first study of its kind in the UK. Scientists at the University of Aberdeen will undertake a two-year study, which is being funded to the tune of £100,000 by Cerebra, the Foundation for brain-injured children and young people.
Cerebral palsy is notoriously difficult to manage because of the wide range of severity. Now, clinical researchers at the University will carry out a study to assess the damage caused to new-born babies due to difficult births.
Hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) - damage to the brain that occurs in newborn infants as a result of lack of oxygen before, during or soon after birth - is an important cause of cerebral palsy. Management of HIE remains one of the biggest challenges in the care of newborn babies.
Typically, HIE is associated with complications during labour, or in premature babies. Although recent improvements in fetal and neonatal intensive care have reduced perinatal mortality by 25% in the last decade, increasing rates of prematurity have lead to an increased number of high-risk babies suffering from HIE. This is an important cause of infant morbidity and mortality and can result in lifelong learning difficulties and/or physical disabilities.
The study will involve the development of a non-invasive method of imaging blood flow to the brain. Once this is done newborn babies will be imaged in the University's research MRI scanner at Foresterhill.
Principal Investigator, Dr Thomas Redpath, Reader, Bio-Medical Physics, is delighted with the funding awarded to Aberdeen. He said: "The first aim of this initiative is the development of a robust, non-invasive diagnostic imaging technique for brain injury in newborn babies, with the ultimate aim of using MRI to assess the value of different treatments in this condition.
"The ultimate aim is to develop a non-invasive method of assessing whether brain damage has occurred in babies who have had a difficult birth, where they were deprived of oxygen for a significant period and to use the MR imaging method to evaluate the effectiveness of new methods of treating these babies."
Initially 10 healthy babies will be imaged by MRI to test the technique and establish what a normal scan is expected to look like. Following this 10 babies who have suffered oxygen deprivation during a difficult labour will be scanned.
The research is a collaborative project between scientists from the Department of Biomedical Physics and Bioengineering, doctors from the Neonatal Unit at Aberdeen Maternity Hospital, and from the Department of Radiology.
David Williams, Head of Research at Cerebra, said: "We are extremely pleased to be able to fund this much-needed project. The University of Aberdeen are acknowledged leaders in this field and this research will potentially benefit the large number of children suffering from HIE."