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

A Comparison of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Findings in Children With and Without a History of Early Exposure to General Anesthetics

Status
Completed
Phases
Unknown
Study type
Observational
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT01229514
Enrollment
30
Registered
2010-10-27
Start date
2008-10-31
Completion date
2011-06-30
Last updated
2012-08-02

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Exposed to Anesthesia

Keywords

Children, before, the age of 2 years

Brief summary

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.

Interventions

OTHERfMRI

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

Sponsors

Nationwide Children's Hospital
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Observational model
CASE_CONTROL
Time perspective
PROSPECTIVE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
10 Years to 17 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes

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.

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Use of fMRI as a toolone time 10 to 17 yrs. post-anesthesiaTo evaluate the use of fMRI as a tool to investigate the functional consequence of exposure to general anesthetic medications during early brain development

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Brain activation patternsone time 10 to 17 yrs. post-anesthesiaTo 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).

Countries

United States

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026