Federal Grant Award Summary

The Hospital For Special Surgery Fund, Inc. (HSS Foundation) received a $719,791 Project Grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) under the Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research program (CFDA 93.865), awarded June 1, 2026, with a completion date of May 30, 2031. The research initiative focuses on developing and validating Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) as a biomarker to assess physeal (growth plate) activity and predict limb bone length growth, addressing the clinical challenge of accurately forecasting final limb length in children with length discrepancies and angular deformities. The project will generate advanced imaging analysis methodologies and clinical validation data to improve surgical planning for conditions affecting approximately one-third of adults.

The award funds a multi-institutional study evaluating 171 children across three major pediatric institutions to: (1) predict femoral and tibial length during adolescent growth in healthy children, (2) predict differential growth patterns in children with 2-4 centimeter limb discrepancies, and (3) assess DTI's predictive capacity for growth arrests in distal tibial physeal fractures. The research deliverables include validated DTI protocols and tractography analysis methods that characterize physeal cartilage and bone architecture, enabling identification of physeal abnormalities and providing more precise growth predictions than current indirect calculation methods. This work aims to establish DTI as a superior diagnostic tool for informing orthopedic surgical decision-making and optimizing treatment outcomes for pediatric limb length disorders.