Active clinical trials for "Brain Death"

The investigators hypothesize that preconditioning neurologically deceased organ donors with the calcineurin inhibitor tacrolimus will improve short and long-term transplant survival without causing harm. Organ donors will be randomized to receive either 0.02 mg/kg ideal body weight (IBW) of tacrolimus single infusion or placebo before organ recovery. All corresponding recipients are enrolled and data is collected up to 7 days post-transplant to determine graft function and at 1 year to collect outcomes of vital status, re-transplantation and dialysis. The CINERGY Pilot Trial assesses feasibility for the main trial.

Given the current organ shortage, improving the quality/efficacy of harvested grafts from expanded criteria donors is essential to substantially increase the number of potential donors. Preclinical studies have shown that blocking the vascular mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) mitigates ischemia-reperfusion injury (I/R) and prevents renal dysfunction following acute kidney injury. Potassium canrenoate is an intravenous MR antagonist. Blocking the MR upstream from aortic cross clamping is likely the most effective strategy to limit I/R injury. Yet, brain-dead donors are prone to severe hemodynamic instability and polyuria. Consequently, this study seeks to assess the hemodynamic tolerance of the use of potassium canrenoate in this context, as a first step to a large-scale clinical trial testing the impact of this therapeutic intervention on the survival of kidney grafts.

Brain death is a clinical and paraclinical diagnosis established in a known etiological context. It involves the irreversible destruction of cerebral functions in a beating-heart individual. In the context of organ and tissue donation from a critically ill patient, the clinical diagnosis of brain death is confirmed through a mandatory apnea test. This test is conducted by disconnecting the patient from the ventilator for a duration of 8 to 10 minutes. The test is considered validated when there is no spontaneous respiratory movement and the presence of hypercapnia. Hypercapnia is defined as a PaCO2 (carbon dioxide partial pressure) greater than 60 mmHg or an increase of more than 20 mmHg compared to the pre-ventilator disconnection capnia. These thresholds are meant to provide a strong stimulus to the respiratory centers, objectively confirming the absence of spontaneous ventilation. In practice, the apnea test is performed under CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) or by administering oxygen at 6-10L/min through the endotracheal tube. High-flow oxygenation could be a simple alternative for the apnea test during the validation of the clinical diagnosis of brain death while reducing the risk of lung derecruitment and compromising organ viability and/or lung donation. However, due to the high gas flow used (60 L/min), high-flow oxygenation can lead to a "washout" effect in the anatomical dead space, which may lower the carbon dioxide partial pressure. Consequently, even in a patient in a state of brain death, where spontaneous ventilation is absent by definition, it is not certain that the carbon dioxide partial pressure will increase to the threshold of 60 mmHg or more than 20 mmHg in 10 minutes during an apnea test conducted with high-flow oxygenation. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to examine the feasibility of clinically diagnosing brain death through an apnea test performed with high-flow oxygenation. To determine whether the validation criterion which involves observing an arterial capnia > 60 mmHg or an increase > 20 mmHg (compared to the capnia at the beginning of the test) after 10 minutes can be achieved during an apnea test conducted under high-flow oxygen therapy in patients with clinically confirmed brain death by standard apnea test (under standard oxygen therapy)

Apnea testing is the final decisive examination in the strictly regulated process of brain death assessment. There is no standardized method found in the literature for apnea testing except for the inspection of possible spontaneous chest movements. In addition, the test itself lasts for several minutes leading to the collapse of the lungs. Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a non-invasive, real-time monitoring technique, which is suitable for detecting changes in lung volumes during ventilation. With its help, one can examine the spontaneous initiation of inspiration, the development of atelectasis and the reopening of collapsed regions by mechanical ventilation. Furthermore, the apnea test provides for analysing the effect of changes in pulmonary perfusion on impedance in the absence of noise generated by ventilation.

The main goal of this project is to create a machine learning model in order to quantify liver steatosis in liver donor faster, more objective and reliable than histological analysis and surgeons point-of-view.

Uterus transplantation may enable women with uterine factor infertility to become pregnant and give birth. This study will explore the feasibility of a uterine transplant and eight subjects will undergo deceased donor uterine transplantation at CHU de Limoges. There phases involved in this study: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Screening, Medical Evaluation, IVF, Transplantation, Embryo Transfer, Pregnancy/Delivery and Follow up.

The study aims the assessment of endothelial glycocalyx (EG) degradation in deceased organ donors. There is a lack of organs for the transplantation program. By the description of the EG status, we can open room for organ optimization before transplantation and improve the organ function after transplantation in marginal donors.

The purpose of this study is to make a paramedical evaluation of a selection procedure of serious brain-injured patient in therapeutic abstention to a brain death state within 48 hours.

The purpose of the study is to describe the incidence of complications in brain death adult organ donors.

The purpose of this study is to describe the use of methods confirming brain death in the real clinical practice of the transplant program in the Czech Republic.