Shixie Jiang, MD, assistant professor in the University of Florida Department of Psychiatry, has been awarded a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23) from the National Institute on Aging. The highly competitive five-year award will support his research investigating how delirium contributes to long-term cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
Delirium is a common but serious acute disorder of brain function that affects awareness, cognition, perception, emotion, and behavior during severe medical illness. The condition affects millions of hospitalized patients each year, particularly older adults and critically ill individuals, and remains one of the strongest predictors of future cognitive decline. Despite its widespread impact on public health, the biological mechanisms connecting delirium and dementia are still not fully understood.
Dr. Jiang’s research seeks to address this gap by examining whether advanced bedside brain imaging can identify patients who are at the greatest risk for long-term cognitive impairment following episodes of delirium.
Previously, Dr. Jiang led the first study to use diffuse optical tomography (DOT) to create three-dimensional maps of cerebral oxygenation and functional brain connectivity in patients experiencing delirium. The findings, which were published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, demonstrated the potential of technology to provide new insights into brain function during acute illness.
DOT is a portable, noninvasive imaging technique that uses near-infrared light to generate three-dimensional images of cerebral oxygenation and functional brain connectivity at the bedside. Unlike traditional imaging technologies such as MRI and PET scans, DOT can be used in intensive care units, allowing researchers to study brain function in patients who are often too medically unstable to undergo conventional neuroimaging.
Building on these findings, the NIH-funded project will enroll critically ill older adults receiving treatment at UF Health Shands Hospital. Researchers will investigate whether portable bedside brain imaging can detect early changes associated with delirium and predict which patients are most likely to experience long-term cognitive decline.
The long-term goal of the project is to develop objective neuroimaging biomarkers that will improve understanding, diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of delirium and its lasting cognitive consequences.