Cerebrovascular reactivity in sick neonates
Cerebrovascular reactivity in sick neonates
Brain injury in newborns can result from unstable blood supply. Current techniques can detect existing brain injury but cannot identify infants at risk at a stage when protective therapies are still possible. The thesis of Celina Brunsch addresses this gap, developing methods to monitor how blood vessels in the brain respond to changes in blood pressure.
Brunsch created algorithms to improve signal quality, found that impaired blood vessel reactivity drives brain injury, developed outcome-prediction models across patient groups, and uncovered cellular mechanisms underlying blood vessel development.
In addition, this thesis assessed developmental outcomes in infants and shows that blood vessel reactivity can reveal altered face processing in preterm infants.
Altogether, the findings demonstrate that monitoring blood vessel reactivity is feasible and enables us to protect the newborn brain.