Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) is a form of cardiopulmonary bypass which provides days
to weeks of life-saving support to critically ill children and adults whose illness is progressing despite maximal
conventional therapies. Use of ECMO is expanding rapidly and it has supported >71,000 children worldwide.
Advances in ECMO have allowed more children to survive an otherwise fatal illness, however neurological
injury reduces survival by 50-60% and leads to significant long-term neurologic morbidity. Only half of ECMO
survivors have normal neurobehavioral outcomes. The underlying disease and ECMO may both disrupt
cerebral autoregulatory mechanisms and cause neuroinflammation, which may also disrupt autoregulation.
Disrupted cerebral autoregulation predisposes the brain to hemorrhagic or ischemic injury via excessive or
inadequate perfusion, yet it is not monitored during ECMO. Current clinical tools do not predict neurological
injury, greatly inhibiting the development of neuroprotective protocols. Specifically, there is no monitor to
continuously assess the state of cerebral autoregulation, forcing clinicians to rely on imperfect systemic
surrogates that may not reflect risks of impending neurological injury.
The long-term goal of this research is to develop continuous non-invasive bedside monitors for critically ill
patients. The primary goals of this proposal are to (1) test the hypothesis that continuous point-of-care optical
monitoring of cerebral autoregulation can predict neurologic injury after the first 48 hours of ECMO and (2)
demonstrate that optically measured indices of cerebral autoregulation are associated with neuroinflammatory
biomarkers in serial blood samples throughout ECMO. A pilot study led by the Pl has demonstrated the
feasibility of using advanced non-invasive optical monitors to assess cerebral autoregulation
and cerebral perfusion in pediatric ECMO patients. Our ongoing pilot study has shown disrupted
autoregulation indices correlate with neurological injury found on post-ECMO imaging. This proposal will utilize
diffuse optics to longitudinally monitor cerebral autoregulation and inflammation throughout ECMO in a large
pediatric population (0-18 y.o., n=125). In Aim 1, we will demonstrate that alterations in optical metrics of
cerebral autoregulation during ECMO predict neurological injury found on intra-ECMO CT. In Aim 2, we will
demonstrate that optical metrics of cerebral autoregulation measure the temporal course of neuroinflammation,
as evidenced by biomarkers in lab-based blood assays.
If successful, the work of this interdisciplinary team of physical scientists, clinicians, and neuroscientists will
establish the value of continuous quantitative optical monitoring of cerebral autoregulation to prospectively
identify periods of high risk of injury during ECMO. These results will enable the development of brain-focused
cardio-pulmonary bypass protocols (e.g., blood pressure titration) to reduce the rate of neurologic injury and
associated mortality and morbidity in ECMO patients.
