The Radiology division at Phoenix Children’s engages in primary radiology research endeavors and collaborates with other divisions to support their research initiatives. The division’s primary research projects primarily focus on body, fetal, neurological and interventional radiology. The division has numerous publications and presentations at national and international meetings.

While every pediatric radiologist at Phoenix Children’s is board certified by the American Board of Radiology, many of our specialists have additional certifications and expertise in cardiovascular imaging, musculoskeletal imaging, fetal imaging, PET and nuclear medicine, interventional radiology and/or neuroradiology. This diverse expertise provides our division with a breadth of research topics that together seek to improve patient care.

Fetal Imaging Research

The expert team at Phoenix Children’s Fetal Imaging Center are involved in leading-edge fetal imaging research endeavors and have unique clinical-industry partnerships that help lead to the advancement of patient care.

This work, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, utilized data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Fetal Growth Studies to create standards for fetal soft tissue and organ volumes via 3D ultrasonography and compare growth trajectories to 2D ultrasound where applicable. Results from this work can be used to promote future investigators into relationships between abnormal fetal growth, adverse perinatal outcomes and postnatal health status.

This study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, used 2D and 3D imaging data from the NICHD Fetal Growth Study to establish standards for fetal body composition and organ volumes and determine whether these standards vary for twins versus singletons. Such work is important for future evaluations concerning the influence of maternal characteristics, lifestyle factors, nutrition, and biomarker and chemical data on longitudinal measures of fetal subcutaneous fat, lean body mass and organ volumes.

This case series explores the utility of microvascular flow imaging (MFI), a newer technique of ultrasound that demonstrates small vessels and slow vascular flow, for diagnosis of persistent fetal vasculature (PFV).

Artificial Intelligence in Radiology

Our division includes researchers that lead the field of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in radiology that will advance patient care.

This study utilized 3D MRI imaging from patients with hydrocephalus to create a complex topographic visualization that characterized outcomes following surgical intervention. This work highlights an approach for deformation analysis and vector mapping that may serve as a topographic visualizer for therapeutic interventions in patients with hydrocephalus.

This paper, published in Nature Communications, presents an end-to-end, MRI-based federated learning (FL) platform for posterior fossa (PF) tumors, FL-PedBrain, on a large international pediatric dataset of 19 institutions from North America, Europe, West Asia, North Africa and Australia. The study team investigated real-life scenarios where some sites provide missing or imbalanced data and explored the underlying sources of data heterogeneity, such as variations in image quality, or site-specific tumor features.

Additional Research

Find a Research Study

Patients and families can use the Find a Research Study tool or speak with their child’s doctor to learn about enrollment in current and upcoming clinical research studies at Phoenix Children’s.

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