Abstract #2493

Longitudinal Changes in Infant Brain Metabolites at Age 6 & 13 Months using 3D High-Speed MR Spectroscopic Imaging at 3 Tesla

Chenying Yang¹, Neva Corrigan², Mindy Olson³, Dennis Shaw^3,4, Stefan Posse⁵, Stephen Dager¹

¹Department of Radiology & Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States; ²Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States; ³Seattle Children's, Seattle, WA, United States; ⁴Department of Radiology , University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States; ⁵Department of Neurology, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, NM, United States

A novel chemical imaging method, 3-D Proton Echo Planar Spectroscopic Imaging, using high spatial resolution, short echo-time and short measurement time was applied to study infants brain development longitudinally at 6 and 12 months. The preliminary findings demonstrated the feasibility of a rapid 3D MR spectroscopic imaging protocol to evaluate metabolite changes during brain development in infants, and to further apply this approach to evaluate risk factors in abnormalities of Autism.