Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Findings in Children With Early Exposure to General Anesthesia

Nationwide Children's Hospital30 enrolled

Overview

General anesthetic medications have been shown to cause neuronal cell death in the brains of infant rodents. Ethanol and general anesthetics both act on NMDA and GABA receptors,and appear to have similar mechanisms of toxicity in the immature rodent brain. Functional MRI (fMRI) is a technique developed for mapping brain activation and has been utilized to examine how the brains of children with a history of early exposure to ethanol function differently from children without such a history. This study will utilize fMRI to look for specific changes in brain activation patterns in children with a history of early exposure to general anesthesia, as compared to children without such exposure.

Study Type

OBSERVATIONAL

Enrollment

Conditions

Exposed to Anesthesia

Interventions

fMRIOTHER

fMRI and a response inhibition task to examine activation patterns in the prefrontal cortex and caudate nucleus

Eligibility

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: 1. Children ages 10-17 years with an history of exposure to general anesthesia for at least one hour in duration during the ages of 0-24 months of age. 2. The cognitive ability to complete fMRI imaging. 3. Consent of the subject's guardians and assent of the subject. 4. Right hand dominance. 5. English language speaker. Exclusion Criteria: 1. Subjects with known possibility or knowledge of pregnancy. 2. Documentation of hemodynamic or respiratory instability documented on the anesthetic record 3. Subjects with the inability to complete MRI imaging without sedation. 4. History of prenatal ethanol exposure. 5. History of exposure to antiepileptic medication. 6. History of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) 7. History of traumatic brain injury 8. History of psychiatric disease or exposure to psychoactive medications. 9. History of substance abuse.

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Use of fMRI as a tool

To evaluate the use of fMRI as a tool to investigate the functional consequence of exposure to general anesthetic medications during early brain development

Time frame: one time 10 to 17 yrs. post-anesthesia

Secondary Outcomes

Brain activation patterns

To compare brain activation patterns in children with and without a history of early exposure to general anesthetic medications while peforming a specific task (go/no-go).