Moderator: Dr. Valentine Brousse, MD, PhD
Pediatrician, Sickle cell disease expert
Hôpital Universitaire Robert Debré
Paris, France

Dr. Valentine Brousse is a pediatrician specializing in hemoglobinopathies. She is a senior consultant working for the Reference Centre for Sickle Cell Disease at Robert Debré University Hospital in Paris, where over 1500 children are followed from neonatal diagnosis through adulthood. She coordinates clinical research programs, notably on cerebral vasculopathy and spleen function. She also collaborates with the INSERM research team 1134 “Integrated Biology of Red Blood Cells”, focusing on spleen-mediated erythrophagocytosis and blood defense.

Speaker: Dr. Suzanne Verlhac, MD
Radiologist
University Hospital Robert Debré, APHP
Paris, France

Dr. Suzanne Verlhac is a pediatric radiologist who has been involved in the care of children with sickle cell disease for over 30 years, first in the Intercommunal Hospital, Créteil (1991-2006), France and then in the University Hospital Robert Debré, APHP, Paris (2006-presen). As a pioneer in transcranial of transcranial color Doppler ultrasound and MRI Angiography in sickle cell disease children in France, she has published numerous articles in international journals on diagnosing and preventing neurovascular complications of sickle cell disease. In addition to her activity in pediatric imaging at the hospital, she is involved in medical education and training in transcranial and cervical Doppler ultrasound. She has collaborated on several research projects.

Presentation Title: Prevent Stroke in Children: Lessons from Sickle Cell Disease with Ultrasound and MRI

Abstract: Sickle cell disease is the leading cause of stroke in children, mainly in those under ten, with a spontaneous risk of 11% at age 20. It is associated with steno-occlusive arteriopathy of the large and medium-sized carotid circulation arteries, which can be detected early with ultrasound. SCD is a genetic hemoglobinopathy that mainly affects populations in Africa or of African descent and India, but also the Middle East, Maghreb, Greece, and Sicily. In Africa, the prevalence of the mutated gene ranges from 2%–38% of the population, with the highest burden estimated to be in Tanzania. In France, 30,000 people are affected, and it's about the same in the UK. Stroke can be effectively prevented by transfusion therapy and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, currently the only curative treatment for the disease. After a brief introduction to the disease, this talk covers equipment selection and set-up, hands-on execution of the exam with close-ups of probe positioning and handling to optimize velocity spectra acquisition, as well as key data for exam interpretation and its role in patient management. MRI is not forgotten, with time-of-flight angiography images of sickle cell arteriopathy and typical parenchymal lesions.

Speaker: Dr. Sixtine Omont
PhD student in neurosciences
Université Paris Cité
Paris, France

After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in biology, Sixtine started a master's degree in Integrative and Physiological Biology with a specialization in Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience at Sorbonne University. As part of her master's degree, Sixtine participated in two MRI projects, one with Marieke Longcamp (LNC – Aix-Marseille University), on the development of cerebral lateralization in children and adults during handwriting and one with Grégoire Borst (LaPsyDE – Paris City University) on the development of cerebral lateralization of the activation network engaged by inhibitory control following executive learning in school-age children.

In October 2019, Sixtine starts her PhD on a 3-year longitudinal study, supervised by André Knops. Her thesis aims to study the contribution of 'domain-general' functions to the development of numerical cognition in children aged between 3 and 9 from a behavioral and cerebral point of view, using MRI.

Presentation Title: A Neurobiological Approach to Better Understand Mathematical Function in 5- and 7-year-olds Using MRI.

Using MRI to better understand the development of mathematical functions in 5- and 7 years old is an innovative and challenging way to improve our knowledge. Indeed, the key to obtaining good MRI images lies primarily in the training and the condition of participants before they go into the MRI scanner. But also, to reassure the parents as much as possible. In this way, we can obtain images where the children have moved very little, making the results statistically more reliable and usable. This talk will present the scientific objectives of our research project, as well as the protocol implemented to recruit, train and scan participants from a complex population for study: children aged 5 and 7.