NIMROD: Neonatal & Infant MRI of Respiratory Outcomes in Disease

Context:
Testing how well the lung "functions" usually involves the use of breathing tests. However, these tests are extremely difficult to do reliably and accurately in newborn babies and infants. We need new imaging techniques that can help visualise the best and worst functioning areas of the lungs. In adults, x-ray and computed tomography (CT) imaging is often used to study the lungs. However, these methods pose an increased harmful radiation risk to newborns and infants. In addition, the function of the heart is normally measured by invasive methods that are not safe for newborns and infants, or echocardiography, which is technically challenging in these populations.
As a result, our knowledge of newborn and infant diseases of the lung and heart is collectively poor compared to that of adolescents and adults. In particular, lung and heart problems in babies born pre-term are the major cause of death, yet remain not well understood.

Objectives:
The main purpose of this research is to develop safe, robust methods for imaging the lungs and heart in newborns and infants to better understand and manage debilitating diseases, in particular those related to pre-term birth. We will use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); a safe imaging method that poses no harmful radiation risk to newborns and infants. The main objectives are as follows:
- Develop MRI methods to investigate how diseases affect the lungs and heart in newborns and infants:
-- Develop software to control the MRI scanner to obtain the best quality images that inform us about the structure and function of the lungs and heart in newborns and infants.
-- Develop MRI hardware that is comfortable for newborns and infants and helps to improve image quality.
- Test how well our developed methods and technology can detect changes to the structure and function of the lungs and heart in newborns and infant lung diseases, including diseases related to premature birth.
-- Measure how well these methods can detect the causes for changes in patient's health over time as disease progresses.

My research will be carried out at the University of Sheffield, a world-leading institution in MRI technique development with a unique interdisciplinary balance of scientists and clinicians to ensure that technological developments lead directly to NHS and patient benefit.

Potential Applications & Benefits:
The long-term benefit of this research is the potential to change the way lung and cardiac disease is managed in newborns and infants and improve patient quality-of-life.
In particular, the methods we develop will help identify early signs of disease that cannot easily be identified by other methods. In addition, MRI is safe, and scanning can be repeated often to monitor disease progress or visualise the changes due to treatment. This cannot be done with CT, and will aid our understanding of diseases and help identify new ways they can be treated.
We will develop these techniques for whole-body MRI scanners, of the sort available in most hospitals, which will increase accessibility of the technique to NHS clinicians nationally.