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Single-Scan Multi-Contrast Cranial MRI in Pediatric Patients

Award Number: R01DE034733
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DENTAL AND CRANIOFACIAL RESEARCH
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 07/02/2026
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 04/30/2031

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Single-Scan Multi-Contrast Cranial MRI in Pediatric Patients - PROJECT SUMMARY Several congenital birth defects manifesting in cranial abnormalities require complex surgical correction. One of the more common ones is craniosynostosis, characterized by premature fusion of one or more cranial sutures, occurring in about 1 in 2000 infants. Computed tomography (CT) is the clinical standard for the evaluation and diagnosis of craniofacial skeletal pathologies. However, the potential adverse effects of repeated ionizing radia- tion exposure in children have raised concerns given that multiple CT scans can triple the risk of leukemia and brain tumors in children. Unlike CT, MRI is free of ionizing radiation and can provide multiple tissue contrasts in the same scan session. The investigators’ lab has recently conceived and implemented a subtraction technique which combines data from two interleaved ultra-short echo (UTE) scans with alternating short and long radiofre- quency (RF) excitation pulses from which bone-specific images of the skull can be reconstructed. However, current cranial bone MRI methods have limitations. First, MRI sequences have relatively long scan times (5-7 minutes) compared to CT (<30 seconds). Without sedation, such scan times are problematic for younger chil- dren, making the images prone to motion artifacts. Second, current bone-specific MR images have voxel sizes that are considerably larger than those achievable by CT. Third, bone, soft-tissue, and air voxels may have overlapping histogram intensities in MR images making segmentation of the skull laborious and requiring expert knowledge of skull anatomy. The ideal imaging protocol to supplant CT in pediatric patients would combine desirable image properties from both CT (rapid, high-resolution, and high bone specificity) and MRI (absence of ionizing radiation, both bone and soft-tissue contrasts) in a single imaging session. Towards this goal, and build- ing on recent preliminary data demonstrating feasibility, we propose development of a UTE MRI technique meet- ing the above objectives. We hypothesize that the new method will provide images and clinical measures com- parable in quality and geometric accuracy to those obtained by CT. Evaluation of this hypothesis will be ad- dressed with the following specific aims: Aim 1: Further develop a high-resolution, three-minute, dual-echo UTE sequence for simultaneous bone-specific and intracranial imaging (T1-weighted, T2-weighted) including multi- contrast image reconstruction from undersampled data. Aim 2: Develop a robust automatic skull segmentation algorithm using a convolutional neural network to generate full 3D skull renderings for surgical planning and evaluate the similarity between binary bone images from MRI and CT using Dice similarity metrics along with craniometric measurements. Aim 3: Apply the proposed MRI sequence to pediatric patients with craniofacial anomalies and validate against clinical CT and manually calculated craniometrics. Rigorous execution of this project will lead to a clinically practical, radiation-free method for the pre- and post-operative evaluation of pedi- atric patients with craniofacial anomalies. This method will simultaneously assess neurological soft tissue and bony malformations and acquire measurements of surgically relevant cranial distances via 3D skull renderings. 1


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = $528,460 )
2026	2026	TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, THE	3451 WALNUT ST	PHILADELPHIA	PA	19104	PHILADELPHIA	USA	Oral Diseases and Disorders Research	000	1	7/7/2026	NEW	$528,460
														Subtotal = $528,460

Grand Total All Awards = $528,460

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Single-Scan Multi-Contrast Cranial MRI in Pediatric Patients

Award Number: R01DE034733

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DENTAL AND CRANIOFACIAL RESEARCH

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 07/02/2026

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 04/30/2031

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