Research & Innovation |Overview
Boston Children's Neurocritical Care Program is dedicated to scientific research with the potential to greatly improve brain recovery in seriously ill and injured children.
We are currently studying several areas, including:
- assessments of heart and brain interactions
- cerebral metabolism
- cerebrovascular autoregulation
- assessments of brain function and substructure networks in coma
- neuropharmacology and therapeutics for refractory status epilepticus
We are also taking part in national and international studies of traumaticbrain injury,and are collaborating with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on signal processing and computational physiology efforts.
Boston Children’s Neurocritical Care Program uses the most advanced tools and technologies available, including:
- Computed Tomography (CT)imaging of the brain, which can be performed right at the bedside
- a powerful 3 TeslaMagnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)scanner located right by the ICU, allowing patients to undergo the test without being moved to another part of the hospital
- intensiveneuromonitoring, a combination of techniques to track the different functions of a child's brain
The program also plans to make significant additions in the future, including the introduction of:
- near-infrared spectroscopy, a highly effective and non-invasive way to capture images of brain functions
- signal-processedelectroencephalogram (EEG)monitoring, a sophisticated tool for measuring brain activity
- transcranial Doppler, a special test that assesses the rate of blood flow through a child's brain
- non-invasivehemodynamic monitoring, the continuous measurement of how a child's heart and lungs are working
- integrative physiology, an approach to examining how both external and internal factors affect the body