Texas Children’s Radiologist-in-Chief Dr. George Bisset described Texas Children’s radiology team as the “shining star” at the 7th International Pediatric Radiology (IPR) Conjoint Meeting and Exhibition which was held in Chicago from May 10 to May 15.
“As a testament to our team’s hard work, we had 24 podium presentations and our scientific abstracts comprised one-fifth of the 120 research abstracts coming from the U.S.,” Bisset said. “This was quite an accomplishment, but on top of that, our team won two of the top three radiology research awards.”
Dr. Jacquelyn Garcia received the John Kirkpatrick Young Investigator Award for her paper, “Fetal lung volumes by MRI: Normal weekly values from 18 weeks through 28 weeks gestation.”
Her project, which was mentored by Drs. Amy Mehollin-Ray and Christopher Cassady of Texas Children’s and Dr. Mariana Meyers of Children’s Hospital of Colorado, combined extensive data from two large fetal centers to provide more robust normal fetal lung volume values for use in prognostication and parental counseling earlier in pregnancy.
Dr. Ketan Ghaghada received the Caffey Award for Best Basic Science Research Paper for his work entitled ‘In vivo Profiling of Folate Receptor Expression in Rat Placenta Using MR Molecular Imaging.’
In his study, Ghaghada and his colleagues presented the first demonstration of non-invasive imaging of placental vascular receptors. Vascular receptors in the placenta play a central role during pregnancy by facilitating the active transport of a variety of nutrients, proteins and macromolecules from the mother to the fetus. Alterations in the expression of placental receptors has been linked to pregnancy-related complications and impairment of fetal growth.
Their research work is a result of an ongoing collaborative effort led by Dr. Ananth Annapragada of the Translational Imaging Group (TIGr) at Texas Children’s Department of Pediatric Radiology and Dr. Chandrasekhar Yallampali of the Baylor College of Medicine Department of OB/GYN.
The IPR Meeting combined all of the major pediatric radiology societies around the world, which means there was a lot more competition to achieve top research honors. The conference featured world-renowned speakers, sunrise workshops, keynote lectures with scientific sessions and posters highlighting scientific research. The conference also included a separate radiographer’s program with content specifically targeted for pediatric radiology technologists and radiographers.