Brain scans to predict autism in infants

There is a new type of brain scan that can predict whether a baby as young as 6 months old will develop autism, researchers say.

The scan will not be useful for all kids. However, in the case of children who were considered to be at high risk due to an older autistic sibling, the scans chose correctly nine out of 11 children who were later diagnosed with autism out of a group of 59 high-risk kids.

“If future studies confirm these results, detecting brain differences may enable physicians to diagnose and treat autism earlier than they do today,” said Dr. Diana Bianchi, director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which helped fund the study.

The researchers from the University of North Carolina and Washington University in St. Louis tried several types of scans to find early signs of autism, a developmental disorder that starts before birth and that’s marked by changes in how the brain works, according to NBC.

The team used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to find structural changes in the brains of babies born with autism and used another type of MRI, called functional connectivity MRI, to find differences in the way brain regions communicate in infancy.Various differences allowed the researchers to predict nine of the 11 6 month-old infants who were later diagnosed with autism.

“This been a blessing for us and just calming our fears,” Robaina, whose infant daughter took part in some of the team’s research, said. “We know what it’s like as a family to be in the abyss of not knowing who your enemy is and what you are fighting.”

Robaina’s family spent thousands of dollars in co-pays to have MRIs and genetic tests for their son. Although he was medically diagnosed with autism at 5, the family had suspicions much earlier. He was born prematurely and was “a little bit behind” when it came to developmental milestones. “We were told this was typical of preemies,” Robaina told NBC News. “At 12 months, I had that mother’s instinct to know something was not right.”

Robaina was worried about her daughters, now aged 2 and 4 so she enrolled them in the study at the University of North Carolina. “You have the opportunity to find out if something is off,” she said. So far, the two girls have not been diagnosed with autism.

Due to the developmental nature of the disease, the symptoms may make it seem as if a kid is regressing, making parents think it’s something that happens to children when they are toddlers that causes autism later on. Brain studies like this can be reassuring to parents.

However, the costs are high, as MRIs can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. “It is not really an efficient strategy to have every kid scanned at 6 months of age to see if they have autism,” Dr. Joseph Piven, of UNC-Chapel Hill, said.