Neuroradiology

Our highly-specialized team

One thing that sets us apart at Boston Children's Hospital is that our neuroradiologists are highly specialized. Each one has a specific focus within the discipline of neuroradiology. That means that your child will be seen by a specialist who spends most of her time assessing patients with the same condition or type of condition and researching ways to better diagnose it.

For example, our team includes specialists in:

• newborn neurological development and neurovascular imaging (strokes and vascular malformations)
• head and neck, fetal neuroimaging and brain malformations
• imaging of pediatric CNS tumors and neurofibromatosis
• pediatric epilepsy

Innovative diagnosis and treatment

Most MR machines take highly-detailed pictures, so that physicians can see the anatomic structure of the brain and other organs or tissues. Functional MR (fMR) enables physicians to actually see how the body functions. For example, if an fMR is taken of your child's brain and we ask her to move in a certain way, the fMR lets the physicians see which area of the brain is responsible for performing that function.

At Boston Children's Hospital, we use fMR scanners to diagnose and assess treatment of neurological disorders such as epilepsy, stroke, cerebral palsy, brain tumors and brain injury, mental retardation, autism and learning disabilities.

A Mobile MR unit in the OR for more precise surgery

A mobile MR, the first of its kind, is being used to assist surgeons in one of our new operating rooms. This mobile MR, which is suspended from the ceiling, lets our surgeons scan patients before completing the procedure to obtain the most precise and complete surgery.

Leaders in research

In addition to their specialized focus on treating patients, our physicians are involved in research that is changing the way neuroradiology procedures are performed across the nation.

Our division is home to the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium's Neuroimaging Center. This Consortium is a large national study aimed at increasing our understanding of brain tumors and developing better treatment strategies for children who have them. All images and other data from children participating at 11 sites across the country are sent here to be analyzed. Our physicians are using this data to develop imaging protocols that will be used nationally.