The use of MRI in the assessment of cortical and trabecular bone structure in pedeatrics.

This grant application is a request for travel and subsistence costs to be covered by the EPSRC to allow two researchers from the Children's Health and Exercise Research Centre (CHERC), at the University of Exeter, to visit the Musculoskeletal and Quantitative Imaging Research (MQIR) group at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) for a period of 1 week. Whilst at the University, the researchers will meet the MQIR group, specifically Professor Sharmila Majumdar, and be integrated into the research group for the week. During this time, the MRI methods and protocols used in the laboratory for bone sturcture assessment will be explained and illustrated. Research discussions will take place regarding the use of such techniques in children, with specific emphasis on the scanning procedures and image analysis. During the week, both Dr Burrows and Dr Fulford will assess the scanning and analysis techniques with Professor Majumdar and the MQIR group, with discussions concentrating on the integration of such techniques back in the UK at CHERC MRI laboratory. It is the aim that after this preliminary visit, Professor Majumdar will visit CHERC for further discussions on implementing identical MRI protocols at Exeter and San Francisco, allowing future collaboration on research projects and grant applications. It is the vision of Dr Burrows that such a preliminary link with UCSF would have the potential to draw in other academics and research institutions, with the aim of developing an international bone research network. Indeed, Dr Burrows has already received interest from other researchers, nationally and internationally such as;Dr Karen Knapp - University of Exeter, Physics Department UKDr Ken Macleod and Dr Bob Ward - The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, UK Dr John Truscott and Dr Karen Hind - Leeds Teaching Hospital, UKDr David Simpson - Kent and Canterbury Hospital, UKDr Shona Bass - Deakin University at Melbourne, Australia Professor Stephen Bird - Sunshine Hospital, Melbourne, AustraliaProfessor Thomas Beck - Baltimore University, USAThese researchers work in the area of imaging bone in children and are very keen to collaborate internationally. Thus Dr Burrows and Professor Majumdar hope to expand the discussions and protocols that would have been put in place from this overseas visit to other institutions. This would allow multiple centre, large sample, randomized trials into the promotion of bone health in healthy and diseased children, with the aim of decreasing the risk of metabolic bone disease in the population. Such findings would be applicable world wide once multiple centers become involved, and push the area of bone health substantially forward by providing a regular forum for discussions between the top and developing researches in this field. Such a forum could only increase the potential for world class research in an area which could have dramatic effects on the bone health of the world's population.