Active clinical trials for "Brain Injuries"

Postictus hyperglycemia is associated with an accelerated transformation of the ischemic penumbra into an infarct area, with increased infarct size, worse recanalization, reduced cerebral perfusion, increased ischemia reperfusion damage, and worse outcome. Furthermore, when perfusion is reinstated, hyperglycemia causes secondary tissue damage through an increase in ischemic reperfusion damage. Thus, those patients with glycemia values < 155 mg/dL during mechanical thrombectomy, and especially at the time of reperfusion, will have greater ischemia-reperfusion damage, showing a different profile in miRNA expression, with better neurological and functional outcomes and higher risk of hemorrhagic transformation and cerebral edema. The main objective of the study is to evaluate the association between glycemia values at the time of reperfusion and stroke recovery at 3 months in patients with acute cerebral infarction treated with mechanical thrombectomy.

A moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI) occurring in early or middle adulthood might have long-lasting effects on the brain that can accelerate the decline of physical and cognitive function in older age. The proposed study seeks to better understand the implications of aging with a TBI, in order to help Veterans maintain their health and independence. The overarching hypothesis of this new line of research is that participants who experienced a moderate TBI in early or middle adulthood (at least 15 years prior to study enrollment) will have poorer performance on balance and cognitive tests, despite self-reporting no persistent motor or cognitive impairment from the TBI. The investigators also seek to evaluate the potential for practice-based learning and improvement of complex balance tasks in this population, to gain experience for conducting future rehabilitation studies. The long term goal of this line of research is to design rehabilitative and lifestyle interventions to preserve brain health and function in Veterans who have previously experienced a TBI.

Various methods have been studied to evaluate autoregulation. However, there is currently no universally accepted technique to assess integrity of the cerebral autoregulation neurovascular system. In the last decade, significant progress has been achieved in developing methods to assess cerebral autoregulation by quantifying cross-correlation between spontaneous oscillations in CBF or oxygenation and similar oscillations in arterial blood pressure. In this study the investigators will analyze the relationship between spontaneous fluctuations in mean arterial blood pressure and cerebral blood flow velocity or cerebral regional oxygenation to investigate two novel methods for measuring cerebral autoregulation, Transfer Function Analysis and Wavelet Coherence after acute pediatric brain injury.

The aim of this study is to develop exercise prescription of TBI patients and then to evaluate the effectiveness of programmed aerobic walking exercise to improve cognitive performance, depression relief, motivation, symptom, resilience and quality of life with improvement of CBF. This will be a randomized controlled clinical trial, using a mixed method to explore the feasibility and validity of such a safety exercise prescription. Then, a randomized clinical control trial will be applied in TBI patients to evaluate the effectiveness of programmed aerobic exercise to promote psysical-psycho-social health such as cognitive status, 6 minutes walk test, depression relief, motivation, symptom, resilience and quality of life.

In this prospective pilot study, the effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) in post-cardiac arrest syndrome will be evaluated. However, the primary outcome of this pilot study will be the feasibility of this approach. If feasibility is determined, a larger study with adequate powering is to follow.

21 healthy control participants will be recruited. On Day 1 they will complete reward-guided decision making tasks and questionnaires followed by a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan. On Days 2 and 3 they will receive repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) targeting a specific part of the brain called the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) or sham stimulation, and will then repeat a subset of the same decision making tasks and fMRI sequences. If brain stimulation modifies decision making and dACC activity, it could represent a novel way of treating patients with neural circuit deficits that impede motivated behavior. Of particular relevance to the current trial, this rTMS study will run in parallel with a study of apathy (i.e., diminished motivation) in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI), with the goal of eventually leading to a patient-centered trial of rTMS treatment for this disruptive neuropsychiatric symptom.

The goal of this proposal is to examine the influence of feedback timing on learning and brain function in individuals with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), with and without depression.

This study is designed to answer questions related to safety and preliminary efficacy of Acute Intermittent Hypoxia (AIH) in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) survivors. First, we aim to establish whether brief reductions in inhaled oxygen concentration can be safely tolerated in TBI survivors. Second, we aim to establish whether there are any effects of AIH on memory, cognition, and motor control. Participants will be monitored closely for any adverse events during these experiments. Data will be analyzed to determine if there is an improvement in key outcomes at any dose level.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of disability in the Veteran population, often resulting in chronic pain and sleep disturbances, among other issues. Extensive rehabilitative efforts are usually required and often prevent return to the workforce and community. Disturbed sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness are among the most pervasive and enduring problems after TBI, which the investigators hypothesize is a significant contributor to these functional impairments and an impediment toward rehabilitation. Thus, this research aims to enhance sleep quality as a means to reduce pain and improve quality of life and functional outcome measures in Veterans with TBI. The investigators predict that the proposed intervention, morning bright light therapy, if found effective, will be cost-effective, rapidly deployable, and highly accepted by Veterans with TBI.

Combat Veterans of post-9/11 conflicts have experienced serious cognitive and emotional problems resulting from exposure to blasts. Recent work suggests that a critical factor influencing the consequences of blast exposure is distance from the blast, rather than the presence or absence of concussion symptoms. Exposure to blasts from a distance of <10 m has been associated with significantly greater cognitive and neural problems than exposure to blasts from >10 m. So far, the effects of blast-related brain injury on the brain are poorly understood, as to date the effects of blast exposure have received little research focus. The investigators propose to use oscillations in the gamma band (30-100 Hz) of the electroencephalogram (EEG; brain waves) to detect and remediate neural circuit dysfunction related to blast injury in Veterans. If successful, this project could lead to new approaches to detect and remediate the effects of blast exposure on Veterans and aid in their functional recovery.