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Unanticipated findings in pediatric neuroimaging research: Prevalence of abnormalities and process for reporting and clinical follow-up

  • SI: Developing Brain
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Abstract

MRI is a powerful tool to evaluate brain anatomy and function in normal children and its use in research applications has steadily increased. As imaging technology improves, and sensitivity to brain pathology increases, unanticipated (and potentially clinically important) findings on research neuroimaging studies will also increase. We evaluated the prevalence and type of unanticipated and potentially clinically significant imaging findings in a group of 114 normal children enrolled in an ongoing MRI imaging study of normal brain development for the Pediatric Functional Neuroimaging Research Network. Brain imaging findings were classified using standardized scales developed for the Network and findings were reported to participants and their primary healthcare provider according to a standard reporting pathway. Classification scales, reporting processes, and illustrated examples of findings are included and discussed. Unanticipated imaging findings were identified in approximately 12.5 % of children participating in this study.

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Acknowledgments

Acknowledgement: This works was sponsored by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Contract title: The Pediatric Functional Neuroimaging Research Network, # HHSN275200900018C.

Disclosures

Drew Kaiser, James Leach, Jennifer Vanest, Mark Schapiro, and Scott Holland declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, and the applicable revisions at the time of the investigation. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, 3333 Burnet Avenue ML 5031, Cincinnati, OH, 45229, USA

    Drew Kaiser, James Leach & Scott Holland

  2. Department of Neurology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Jennifer Vannest & Mark Schapiro

  3. Pediatric Neuroimaging Research Consortium, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Jennifer Vannest & Scott Holland

  4. Communication Sciences Research Center, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Scott Holland

Authors
  1. Drew Kaiser
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  2. James Leach
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  3. Jennifer Vannest
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  4. Mark Schapiro
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  5. Scott Holland
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Consortia

The CMIND (Cincinnati MR Imaging of NeuroDevelopment) Authorship Consortium

Corresponding author

Correspondence to James Leach.

Additional information

*The CMIND (Cincinnati MR Imaging of NeuroDevelopment) Authorship Consortium

Scott K. Holland, Ph.D.1,6,9,10

Jennifer Vannest, Ph.D.1,5

Vincent J. Schmithorst, Ph.D.1,2

Mekibib Altaye, Ph.D.1,7

Gregory Lee, Ph.D.1,6

Luis Hernandez-Garcia, Ph.D.3

Michael Wagner, Ph.D.1,8

Arthur Toga, Ph.D.12,13

Jennifer Levitt, MD14

Anna W. Byars, Ph.D1,5

Andrew Dimitrijevic, Ph.D.9,10

Nicolas Felicelli8

Darren Kadis, Ph.D.1,5

James Leach, MD1,6

Katrina Peariso, MD, Ph.D.5

Elena Plante, Ph.D.4

Akila Rajagopal, M.S.1

Andrew Rupert, M.S.8

Mark Schapiro, MD1,5

Ronald Ly14

Petros Petrosyan12

JJ Wang, Ph.D.11

Lisa Freund, Ph.D.15

1Pediatric Neuroimaging Research Consortium

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

University of Cincinnati, 3333 Burnet Ave.

Cincinnati, OH 45229

2Pediatric Imaging Research Center, Dept. of Radiology

Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, Pittsburgh, PA

3Functional MRI Laboratory, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

4Dept. of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences

University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

5Div. of Neurology, Dept. of Pediatrics

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

University of Cincinnati, 3333 Burnet Ave.

Cincinnati, OH 45229

6Dept. of Radiology

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

University of Cincinnati, 3333 Burnet Ave.

Cincinnati, OH 45229

7Div. of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Dept. of Pediatrics

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

University of Cincinnati, 3333 Burnet Ave.

Cincinnati, OH 45229

8Div. of Biomedical Informatics, Dept. of Pediatrics

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

University of Cincinnati, 3333 Burnet Ave.

Cincinnati, OH 45229

9Dept. of Otolaryngology

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

University of Cincinnati, 3333 Burnet Ave.

Cincinnati, OH 45229

10Communication Sciences Research Center

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

University of Cincinnati, 3333 Burnet Ave.

Cincinnati, OH 45229

11Dept. of Neurology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA

12Laboratory of Neuroimaging, Keck School of Medicine of USC

Los Angeles, CA

13Departments of Ophthalmology, Neurology, Psychiatry, and the

Behavioral Sciences, Radiology and Engineering

Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, CA

14Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA

15Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and

Human Development, Bethesda, MD

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Kaiser, D., Leach, J., Vannest, J. et al. Unanticipated findings in pediatric neuroimaging research: Prevalence of abnormalities and process for reporting and clinical follow-up. Brain Imaging and Behavior 9, 32–42 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-014-9327-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-014-9327-7

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