Active clinical trials for "Brain Death"

Each year, only one third of patients registered on the waiting list receive a kidney transplant. Numerous paths are being explored with the aim of reversing this shortage. The first is to increase the number of organs by developing harvesting from donors in a state of brain-death (BD) termed "expanded criteria donors" or from patients deceased from circulatory arrest. Another fundamental factor is to insure the success of the transplant by limiting the dysfunction of donor kidneys, marked by a delayed graft function (DFG). The development of techniques to insure correct perfusion of harvested organs, and the optimization of reanimation and intensive care of brain-dead donors constitute important factors in DGF reduction. Therapeutic Hypothermia could to be an attractive care strategy for BD patients.

In the present pilot study, the investigators propose to determine if performing CT perfusion scans in post-cardiac arrest patients in coma will help prognosticate the outcome in these patients.

We hypothesized that brain death is associated with an early systemic inflammatory response, possibly combined with activation of apoptotic cell death, two events that may contribute to induce rapid organ dysfunction. In this study of brain-dead donors and controls, we assayed plasma cytokines and soluble factors, investigated plasma endotoxin levels as a triggering factor for inflammation, measured ex vivo cytokine production by blood leukocytes to determine whether immunosuppression occurred after brain death, and examined skeletal muscle biopsies to look for evidence of inflammation and increased apoptosis in peripheral tissue.

This study concerns the nearest relatives of patients who have passed away within 3 days of admission to an ICU due to: (1) brain death with multiple organ donation +/- tissues or (2) death via limitation and / or cessation of active treatment (LATA) without brain death or (3) sudden death of a previously healthy patient (no physical or mental limitations; MacCabe score = 0) within 3 days of admission to ICU without LATA nor brain death. Our primary objective is to determine the proportion of nearest relatives at risk for post traumatic stress disorder as defined by an Impact of Event Scale score greater than 37, and to compare this factor between the three above-mentioned groups.

Context: A major lack of organ donors is a serious public health problem. It determines a prolonged delay before a transplant can be performed and thus a significant number of deaths of patients waiting for transplantation. The aim of this project is to reduce the delay of the diagnosis of brain death, and also to improve its diagnosis in the Intensive Care Unit. The diagnosis of brain death is strictly defined by the law and relies either on two consecutive flat electroencephalograms recorded at an interval of four hours, or on the lack of cerebral circulation during a brain angiography performed after suspecting brain death on the clinical exam. However, in usual practice, it is difficult to have all the needed clinical arguments, and their interpretation can be difficult in the pathological context. This may participate in the delay and the lack of patients potentially donors. Pre-study: In a pilot study, fifty subjects with severe cerebral lesions, had a continuous ECG recording. The investigators could find that a decrease in autonomic nervous system activity, as measured through the ECG, was correlated to the transition to brain death assessed by cerebral angiography. The loss of cardiac variability was always observed between two cerebral angiographies, one before and the second after brain death. This study allowed the investigators to calculate the threshold values of sympathetic and parasympathetic activities to confirm brain death.

The goal is to compare post tramautic stress between the nearest relatives of brain-dead patients who are organ donor to those of brain-dead patients who are not organ donors for medical, legal or opposition reasons.

The aim of this study is to assess and survey the quality of the process required to diagnose brain death in adult patients. This study of adult patients diagnosed brain dead or suspected of having brain death on the ICUs at the University Hospital Basel will be purely observational.

The study will examine the resting energy need (REE) in patients suffering from brain damage. For the measurement of REE will be used a metabolic computer (which with continuous recording of breath-to-breath volume (Vt), respiratory rate (RR) of ventilation per minute volume (MV) ), of inhaled and exhaled gases (O2 and CO2) has the ability to calculate the values of VO2, VCO2 and with the help of equations the values of REE and RQ.

The purpose of this study is to assess the reliability of computed tomography angiography (CTA) to diagnose brain death, face of several conditions that make impossible to define such diagnosis using clinical criteria exclusively.

Purpose China has a population of 1.4 billion and an enormous medical expenditure burden, and Chinese traditional culture has a long history. It takes time to recognize and accept the concept of brain death (BD) as death. Promoting brain death determination (BDD) and rationally allocating medical resources have become major national policy issues. To identify the safest and most reliable ancillary tests needed if the clinical examination is incomplete. Method The technical group of the Brain Injury Evaluation Quality Control Center of the National Health Commission retrieved coma cases registered from 2013 to 2019. According to clinical criteria for Brain Death Determination (BDD), the patients were divided into two groups: a brain-death (BD) group and a non-BD group. The BD group was divided into a complete brain death with no doubt group (BD1 group) and an incomplete brain death with doubt group (BD2 group). Depending on the site of the brain injury, the accuracy of BDD was evaluated using the independent ancillary test or combined ancillary tests. Data from the BQCC/NHC database and yearbook were obtained, and data analysis and status comparison were conducted on six practical activities: organizational system construction, standard and specification formulation, case quality control, professional skills training, scientific research publicity and education, and international communication.