In the trial, funded by the National Institute for Health Research and the Medical Research Council, all of the babies had received so-called cooling therapy immediately after birth. This is now a routine treatment for newborns with suspected brain damage, and involves placing a baby on a special mat that reduces their body temperature by four degrees. Evidence has shown that cooling the body can help reduce the extent of brain damage, and reduce the risk of long term disabilities.

The babies then had their brain scan soon after this therapy, and detailed developmental assessment at two years of age. The results suggested the MR spectroscopy at two weeks accurately predicted the level of toddler's development at two years old.


Dr Thayyil added that the scan may also help scientists develop new treatments to tackle brain injury in babies: "At the moment, when doctors are trialling a new therapy that may boost development of children with brain damage, they must wait two years until they can assess whether the treatment is working. They also need to study a large number of babies. But with this new scan, they'll be able to assess this almost immediately, with a much smaller number of infants."

He added that the next step is to roll out the scan in more hospitals in the UK as a clinical tool. "Most NHS hospitals already have the facilities and software to perform this scan, it's just a case of increasing awareness and training."

"I remember the terror when we didn't hear a cry" - Christine's story

Christine Reklaitis gave birth to her daughter Georgiana in 2016, and took part in the trial at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London.

She said: "I had a healthy pregnancy, but during labour my midwife struggled to find Georgiana's heartbeat, and she was born shortly afterwards via emergency c-section.

I remember the terror when we didn't hear a cry after she was born, but thankfully she was breathing, and was whisked away to intensive care, and placed in an incubator. The doctors told us
they were going to cool her down, which we thought sounded unusual, but were told it would reduce her risk of brain damage.

We were asked to take part in a trial and quickly agreed. We felt our daughter's treatment benefitted from past studies, so we wanted to help develop future treatments.

After the first scan we were told the levels of a compound in her brain cells were low, but were incredibly relieved when a scan a few weeks later showed the levels had increased to normal levels.
She has since hit all her development goals, and is a normal two-year-old, and full of energy. We joke the cooling treatment stayed with her, as she never wants to wear a coat when we go outside.

We are so pleased we took part in this trial - and hope the research helps other families."

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