Active clinical trials for "Brain Injuries"

Management of intracranial hypertension (ICH) in patients with severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) is crucial to their survival and optimal recovery. The evidence-based Guidelines for the Management of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury, 3rd Edition recommends use of intracranial pressure (ICP) monitors to assess ICH and guide intervention. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of the world has the resources and capability to routinely monitor ICP. The objective of this proposal is to create and test guidelines for the treatment of severe TBI in the absence of ICP monitoring.

We will determine the incidence and magnitude of cerebral desaturation in TBI. Adult patients (18 years and older) admitted to the Surgical/Trauma Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Health Sciences Center with a severe TBI will have cerebral oximetry monitoring instituted within 12 hours of admission and continuing for 72 hours after placement. Decreases in regional cerebral oxygenation will be correlated with ICU hemodynamic parameters including mean arterial pressure, intracranial pressure, and arterial oxygen and carbon dioxide tension.

Using Virtual Reality and Robotics Technologies for Vocational Evaluation, Training and Placement (VR4VR) is a project that incorporates Virtual Reality into job training to increase job opportunities for people who have physical or mental disabilities. The investigators are using Virtual Reality and robotics for job evaluation, training and placement of people with disabilities. The investigators' goal is to assess and train people in a safe, adaptable, and fun virtual environment similar to a video game. This is an interventional study with three target populations: autism spectrum disorder, traumatic brain injury, and severe mobility and manipulation impairments. The prototype system allows for a wide range of environments with the vocational evaluator easily controlling the virtual experience, while the job seekers interact realistically.

Balance control is the sum action of the sense and reaction systems. In order to perform different activities in different postures one must have the ability to control and to adjust his balance in different conditions.A deficit in brain action following injury, disease or aging can undermine the ability to control balance and increase the risk to fall.The limitation in gait and mobility can increase morbidity. There is a limited number of tools evaluating and recording balance control ability. Most of this tools are observational and can be used in the clinical field. The aim of this work is to estimate the feasibility of an objective tool that can evaluate balance by tracking objective quantitative measures during the standard physical therapy session without using an expensive equipment. By using this tool the therapist can monitor the patient and collect quantitive data while performing tasks while keeping balance. This tool will allow the therapist to detect changes in balance and evaluate the effect of different conditions on the patients balance. This tool is based on the well known functional reach test. The addition of this tool to the test is the use of a simple camera and a computer softwear that will collect the data and analyze it while performing the test. This tool will give the therapist information on the responsiveness and the spatiotemporal measures of the performance. The aim of this work is to check what is the contribution of spatiotemporal measures of the functional reach test among patients suffering from acquired brain injury to the understanding of the motor function and balance control of people suffering from brain injury. .

Thousands of soldiers, marines, and other military personnel have had injuries to the brain due the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition, 1.5 million civilians per year in the United States have traumatic brain injuries caused by car accidents, falls, sports-related injuries or assaults. There are important advances in technology that we think will help us learn a lot more about these injuries. One such advance involves new types of MRI scans that we think will be able to show what has happened to the brain after trauma more clearly that regular scans can. These first new scan is called diffusion tensor imaging, which shows injury to the axons (the wiring of the brain). The second new scan is called resting-state functional MRI correlation analysis, which shows how well various parts of the brain are connected to each other. Importantly, the new types of scans can be done using regular scanners that we already have in every major hospital. The innovation is entirely in how the scanners are used and how the resulting pictures are analyzed on a computer after they have been taken. Our overall goal is to see whether these new MRI scans will be useful for people who have had traumatic brain injuries. We have already tested them on some civilian brain injury patients and found them to be very helpful. For this study, we will test them on military personnel who have had traumatic brain injuries caused by explosions. The specific goal will be to see if the amount of injury we see can be used to predict how well the patients will do overall over the next 6-12 months. We think with the new scans we will be able to predict overall outcomes better than with regular scans and other information. A related goal will be to see whether injuries to specific parts of the brain seen by these new scans can be used to predict whether patients will be likely to have specific problems like memory loss, attention deficit, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder. A final goal will be to repeat the scans 6-12 months later to see whether the new MRI scans can show whether the injuries to the brain have healed, gotten worse, or stayed the same. If the study is successful, it will show that these new MRI techniques can to be used to make earlier and more accurate diagnoses of traumatic brain injury, predictions of the sorts of problems that are likely to occur after brain injury, and assessments of how severe the injuries are. This study will help traumatic brain injury patients. It will be most useful for military personnel who have had brain injuries due to explosions. It is highly likely that it will also be useful for younger adults who have had brain injuries due to other causes like car accidents, sports-related concussions, falls, or assaults. It is possible that but not known for sure whether it will help young children or older adults with traumatic brain injuries. These new scans could help with decisions about whether military personnel can return to duty, what sort of rehabilitation would benefit them most, and what family members should watch for and expect. This could become used in some hospitals within 2 years, and could become standard in every major hospital within 5 years. The new scans could also be helpful in developing new treatments. For example, if a new drug works by blocking injury to the axons, it would be a good idea to test on people who have injury to their axons. Right now we have no good way to tell who these people are, and so a new drug like this would get tested on lots of people who don't have injured axons, along with those who do. This would make it harder to tell if the new drug is working. With the new scans we should be able to tell who has injured axons, tell how severe the injury is, and figure out whom to test the drugs on. It will likely take 10 years or more to develop new drugs like this. Further in the future, the new scans could be used to help guide surgery to implant computer chips to help rewire the brain. We don't know how long this will take, but estimate 15-20 years or more. Overall MRI scanning is very safe and has no known major risks. Because the scanner uses strong magnets, anyone with metal objects in their bodies can't be scanned, as this could be dangerous. We will make sure that no one with metal objects in their bodies is included in the study. There can be some psychological risks involved in taking tests and answering questions, but these are usually mild and can be managed. There is always a risk that important confidential information will be made public and that this could have consequences. We will do everything possible to maintain confidentiality. Nearly all of the information will only be identified using a code number and not by the name of the person, and all of it will be kept securely.

The objective of this study is to measure the frequency and clinical types of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia that occur among up to 150 military retirees with and without a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) among residents of the Armed Forces Retirement Home, Washington D.C. and the Veterans Home of California-Yountville. Investigators will compare the characteristics of dementia in those who have had a prior TBI to the characteristics in those without a history of TBI. It is our hypothesis that the dementia or MCI among those with prior TBI has distinct neuropsychological features that distinguishes it from those with dementia or MCI without a history of TBI.

The purpose of this study will be to assess the attentional ability of patients with mild to moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI) using the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) technique. Methodology for specific aim 1: sagittal pilot scan, 3-D anatomical MRI, Whole brain echo-planar imaging (EPI), and functional MRI techniques with traumatic brain injured subjects doing a Continuous Performance Test (CPT) attention task and compare the pattern of activation with those of normal controls to see if there is a failure to activate frontal lobes in the traumatic brain injured subjects.

Background: - The amount of blood flowing in brain areas goes up when those areas are being used for activities, such as movement or seeing. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a common way of measuring blood flow in the brain. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) can also be used to study blood flow in the brain. However, NIRS has not been used as often as fMRI. Researchers want to compare fMRI and NIRS to see whether they give similar results. These studies will be used to look at people who have had a traumatic brain injury. Objectives: - To test how well NIRS measure changes in blood flow in the brain after a traumatic brain injury. Eligibility: Individuals between 18 and 60 years of age who have had a traumatic brain injury. Healthy volunteers at least 18 years of age. Design: Participants will be screened with a physical exam and medical history. Researchers may ask to see brain images during from previous MRI scans. Participants will have a NIRS scan of the brain. They will be asked to do certain tasks while inside the scanner. These tasks will involve responding to images that appear on a screen. Treatment will not be provided as part of this study.

Head impacts in sports can lead to brain injury even when the participant is wearing a helmet. The forces that contribute to brain injury from sports-related head impacts are not well understood. This study will test a new device to measure the speed of head impacts among football players.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major public health issue, and intracranial hypertension in the acute phase remains a critical scientific issue. Many patients with acute closed TBI received conservative, non-surgical treatments at first, while 5%~19% of which develops intractable intracranial hypertension that requires emergent surgery. Therefore, it is of great clinical significance to identify patients who are at high risk of deterioration in the early stage. Previous studies have found that brain compliance is a contributive factor to intracranial pressure, and might serve in the development of intracranial hypertension after TBI. We made assumption that intracranial pressure has a negative relationship with brain compliance providing that the volume of hematoma remains constant. However, few studies have applied magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) in evaluating brain compliance in patients with TBI. Therefore, this study is designed to enroll patients with acute closed traumatic brain injury who are initially treated non-surgically. Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) sequences are performed to non-invasively assess patients' brain compliances, in the hope of exploring the potential value of MRE biomarkers to predict the short-term outcome in patients with acute closed TBI who are initially receive non-surgical treatments.