Ashok Panigrahy, M.D.

  • Professor
  • Radiologist-in-Chief
  • John F. Caffey Endowed Chair in Pediatric Radiology
  • Department of Radiology

Education & Training

  • B.A., Political Science, Boston University-1992
  • M.D.,Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine-1998

Research Interest Summary

Harnessing the power of neuroimaging biomarkers to improve our understanding of the underpinning of poor neurodevelopment in patients with congenital heart disease across the lifespan

Research Categories

Research Interests

1. Neuroimaging and cardiac neurodevelopment. My exposure to the field of cardiac neurodevelopment started when I was a medical student working in the laboratory of Dr. Hannah C. Kinney at Boston Children’s Hospital. Through this research work, which was carried out in collaboration with Drs. Jane Newburger, Richard Jonas, and Lynn Sleeper, we discovered that term neonates with complex congenital heart disease (CHD) have patterns of brain injury at autopsy that were similar to preterm brain injury. Understanding the in vivo neuroimaging correlates of this brain injury in CHD neonates, using advanced magnetic resonance brain imaging, was the basis for my recent NIH K23 award. I have extended my cardiac neurodevelopmental research by pursing studies that will examine the possible developmental etiology and genetic underpinnings for poor neurodevelopment outcomes in CHD patients via collaboration with Dr. Cecilia Lo.

2. Neuroimaging and Preterm Brain Injury: I have been interested in studying mechanisms of preterm brain injury and outcomes since I started working as an undergraduate research assistant in the laboratory of the pediatric neuropathologist, Dr. Kinney at Boston Children’s Hospital, chaired by Dr. Volpe, in 1991. I was exposed to different aspects of the cellular, molecular, neuropathology and clinical aspects of PVL. I also studied the neuropathology of PVL in neonates with congenital heart disease with Drs. Kinney and Newburger. Eventually, later in my medical school years, I used conventional MRI, in conjunction with Pat Barnes, Steven Back and Dr. Volpe to correlate periventricular signal abnormalities and volumetric difference in central white matter and corpus callosum in preterm children with spastic cerebral palsy. In the prior period of my recent NIH grant (K23-NS20091), my research group has delineated neuroimaging abnormalities in both preterm infants and pre-adolescents using multi-modeling imaging [volumetric MR, task based functional MRI, diffusion tensor imaging (DT I) and MR spectroscopy (MRS)] that are relevant to this application including: (1) pulvinar thalamic abnormalities in children with PVL; (2) ventral striatal abnormalities in preterms neonates that may underlie frontal-executive/attention dysregulation; (3) glutamatergic metabolic abnormalities in the white matter of preterm neonates; (4) recently application of graph theory techniques to both neonatal and adolescent preterm subjects.

3. Neuroimaging and Preterm Brain Injury: I have been interested in studying mechanisms of preterm brain injury and outcomes since I started working as an undergraduate research assistant in the laboratory of the pediatric neuropathologist, Dr. Kinney at Boston Children’s Hospital, chaired by Dr. Volpe, in 1991. I was exposed to different aspects of the cellular, molecular, neuropathology and clinical aspects of PVL. I also studied the neuropathology of PVL in neonates with congenital heart disease with Drs. Kinney and Newburger. Eventually, later in my medical school years, I used conventional MRI, in conjunction with Pat Barnes, Steven Back and Dr. Volpe to correlate periventricular signal abnormalities and volumetric difference in central white matter and corpus callosum in preterm children with spastic cerebral palsy. In the prior period of my recent NIH grant (K23-NS20091), my research group has delineated neuroimaging abnormalities in both preterm infants and pre-adolescents using multi-modeling imaging [volumetric MR, task based functional MRI, diffusion tensor imaging (DT I) and MR spectroscopy (MRS)] that are relevant to this application including: (1) pulvinar thalamic abnormalities in children with PVL; (2) ventral striatal abnormalities in preterms neonates that may underlie frontal-executive/attention dysregulation; (3) glutamatergic metabolic abnormalities in the white matter of preterm neonates; (4) recently application of graph theory techniques to both neonatal and adolescent preterm subjects.

Representative Publications

Panigrahy A, Votava-Smith J, Lee V, Gabriel G, Klena N, Gibbs B, Reynolds WT, Zuccoli G, O'Neil S, Schmithorst VJ, Paquette L, Lo CW. Abnormal brain connectivity and poor neurodevelopmental outcome in congenital heart disease patients with subtle brain dysplasia. Circulation. 2015; 132 (Suppl 3):A16541.

Harbison AL, Votava-Smith J, del Castillo S, Kumar SR, Lee V, Schmithorst V, Lai HA, O’Neil S, Blüml S, Paquette L, Panigrahy A.  Clinical factors associated with cerebral metabolism in term neonates with congenital heart disease.  J Pediatr.  2017; (in press).

Panigrahy A, Lee V, Cecshin R,  Zuccoli G, Beluk N, Khalifa O, Votava-Smith JK,  DeBrunner M,  Munoz R, Domina Y, Morell V, Wearden P,  Sanchex De Toledo J, Devine W, Zahid,M,  Lo CW.  Brain dysplasia associated with ciliary dysfunction in congenital heart disease infants.  J Pediatr. 2016 Nov;178:141-148.  (PMID:  27574995)

Paquette LB, Wisnowski JL, Ceschin R, Pruetz JD, Detterich JA, Del Castillo S, Nagasunder AC, Kim R, Painter MJ, Gilles FH, Nelson MD, Williams RG, Blüml S, Panigrahy A. Abnormal cerebral microstructure in premature neonates with congenital heart disease. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2013 Oct;34(10):2026-33. PubMed PMID: 23703146; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4425253.

Ceschin R, Wisnowski JL, Paquette LB, Nelson MD, Blüml S, Panigrahy A. Developmental synergy between thalamic structure and interhemispheric connectivity in the visual system of preterm infants. Neuroimage Clin. 2015;8:462-72. PubMed PMID: 26106571; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4474422.

Degnan AJ, Wisnowski JL, Choi S, Ceschin R, Bhushan C, Leahy RM, Corby P, Schmithorst VJ, Panigrahy A. Altered Structural and Functional Connectivity in Late Preterm Preadolescence: An Anatomic Seed-Based Study of Resting State Networks Related to the Posteromedial and Lateral Parietal Cortex. PLoS One. 2015;10(6):e0130686. PubMed PMID: 26098888; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4476681.

Nagasunder AC, Kinney HC, Blüml S, Tavaré CJ, Rosser T, Gilles FH, Nelson MD, Panigrahy A. Abnormal microstructure of the atrophic thalamus in preterm survivors with periventricular leukomalacia. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2011 Jan;32(1):185-91. PubMed PMID: 20930003; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3281310.

Panigrahy A, Schmithorst VJ, Wisnowski JL, Watson CG, Bellinger DC, Newburger JW, Rivkin MJ. Relationship of white matter network topology and cognitive outcome in adolescents with d-transposition of the great arteries. Neuroimage Clin. 2015;7:438-48. PubMed PMID: 25685710; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4318874.

Schmithorst VJ, Panigrahy A, Gaynor JW, Watson CG, Lee V, Bellinger DC, Rivkin MJ, Newburger JW. Organizational topology of brain and its relationship to ADHD in adolescents with d-transposition of the great arteries. Brain Behav. 2016 Aug;6(8):e00504. PubMed PMID: 27547505; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4980474.

Full List of Publications