Active clinical trials for "Brain Injuries, Traumatic"

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are common combat related problems and may be associated with a greater risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The purpose of this study is to examine the possible connections between TBI and PTSD, and the signs and symptoms of AD on Veterans as they age. The information collected will help to learn more about how these injuries may affect Veterans of the Vietnam War as they grow older, as well as Veterans of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, who also have these types of combat related injuries.

The purpose of the research study is to collect information about brain function and structure among active duty military personnel or civilians who are healthy. Researchers want to develop a database from normal volunteers that will be used in comparison with a similar database from active duty military with post-concussive syndrome (PCS) from a mild traumatic brain injury. Findings from this study may be used to design larger studies that will evaluate whether hyperbaric oxygen treatments actually improve PCS. Participants in this study will undergo numerous tests to assess physical, mental, and intellectual health and how they might change over time. Participants will wear heart and activity monitors, undergo brain imaging, provide blood and urine for laboratory testing, and have vision, hearing, balance, and muscle function tests. They will also complete a number of questionnaires and interviews. This battery of tests will be repeated twice more over the course of 6 months.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate blood-based biomarkers before and after sports-induced concussion using neuroimaging and head impact sensor technology.

The potential long-term effects of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) are poorly understood. Repeated concussions have been associated with an elevated incidence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) along with a reduced age of onset. As repetitive TBI has been studied, a syndrome has now been identified: chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). There are growing concerns about the long-term neurologic consequences of head impact exposure from routine participation in contact sports (e.g., boxing, football). Brain autopsies of athletes with confirmed CTE have demonstrated tau-immunoreactive neurofibrillary tangles and neuropil threads (known as tauopathy). The relationship between exposure to repetitive head impact and the subsequent development of chronic neurodegenerative disease has not been established. Further, as the diagnosis of CTE (defined by the presence of tauopathy) is presently made after death at autopsy, clinical tools and biomarkers for detecting it remain to be defined. With the advent of FDA-approved PET amyloid imaging, clinicians and researchers are now able to estimate plaque density in the brains of living patients. However, there are critical limitations to amyloid imaging. Current evidence suggests that markers of the presence and severity of tauopathy may be able to address these limitations. The study will utilize both [18F] Florbetapir and [18F]-T807 PET imaging to investigate amyloid and tau accumulation in subjects with a history of concussions. In order to determine whether problems with cognition and memory are seen within the populations defined for the study, the researchers will administer a core battery of neurocognitive testing. This battery will assess cognitive abilities commonly affected by TBI, including processing speed, reaction time, new problem-solving, executive functions, attention and concentration, and learning and memory. These tests, in conjunction with the imaging, will be able to determine whether regional brain activity is associated with specific cognitive problems. The researchers will obtain PET and neurocognitive data in 3 cohorts: subjects with a history of TBIs, subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and no TBI history, and healthy controls. The investigators aim to determine whether individuals with TBI are on the same trajectory of neurodegenerative disease seen in AD or in CTE. Because of the overlap in clinical/cognitive and some behavioral symptoms in AD and CTE, an additional biomarker tool is needed to prevent misdiagnosis. Accurate diagnosis is crucial in order to provide patients with appropriate treatment.

The investigators hypothesize that individual differences exist in resting-state cortical attention, control, sensory, and emotion networks prior to noise exposure and these differences predispose some to the development of bothersome tinnitus. Furthermore, the investigators hypothesize that these changes in functional connectivity of these vulnerable systems after noise exposure are responsible for tinnitus. The proposed study will use a case-control cohort study design. Cases will be those soldiers who develop tinnitus and controls will be those who do not. This will be the first prospective study of tinnitus and will provide important information about the neurobiology of tinnitus. If a cortical neural network etiology for bothersome tinnitus is confirmed, it will be an astounding, powerful, paradigm shifting model for the diagnosis, prevention and, most importantly, treatment of tinnitus. Furthermore, if a battery of neurocognitive tests can identify soldiers at risk for the development of tinnitus then appropriate primary prevention strategies can be introduced. There are three Specific Aims to this project. Specific Aim 1. To determine if soldiers who develop tinnitus display pre-deployment differences in a set of physical, functional, cognitive, vulnerability, perpetuating factors, pre-deployment neurocognitive scores, or neuroimaging features compared to soldiers who do not develop tinnitus ("control group"). Specific Aim 2. To determine if particular scores on neurocognitive tests or neuroimaging features of functional/structural connectivity networks are associated with the development of tinnitus. Specific Aim 3. To identify a set of pre-deployment physical, functional, cognitive, vulnerability, and perpetuating factors, neurocognitive responses, and neuroimaging features that are associated with the development of tinnitus. The investigators plan to recruit 200 soldiers, between the ages of 18 and 30 years who do not have hearing loss or tinnitus and have never been deployed to military theater. The soldier participants will undergo a variety of tests before and after deployment, which will include a hearing test, neurocognitive tests (i.e., brain function tests), and a variety of novel radiologic imaging studies of the brain. One of these novel radiologic imaging studies is functional connectivity Magnetic Resonance Imaging, a proven methodology that monitors changes in brain activity and connections based on blood flow between different brain areas and levels of consumption of oxygen. This information is used to describe the condition of important neural networks responsible for such things as attention, mood, sensation, vision, hearing, and introspection or self-contemplation.

Tampere Traumatic head and brain injury study is a prospective study aiming to explore neuroradiological, neuropsychological, neurological and biochemical aspects of mild traumatic brain injury (mtbi). The main interest is on factors that effect to the outcome after mtbi. The study is conducted in Tampere University Hospital's emergency department between the 1st of August 2010 and 31st of July 2013.

The purpose of this study is to study the biomarkers in subjects before and after sports-induced traumatic brain injury. The assay will be studied in a sample population of subjects over the age of 18 participating in college sports.

The aim of the study is to evaluate the cortical excitability in the severe brain injured patients. We hypothesize that: There is a continuous decrease in intracortical inhibition from healthy subjects to awake patients with severe brain injury, and to patients with impaired consciousness. Decreased intracortical inhibition correlate with the degree of impairment assessed with the clinical scores in patients with severe brain injury.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a Public Health problem, because of the numbers of events (more than 200,000 per year in France). Craniocerebral tomodensitometry (CCT) is widely used for the diagnosis of minor/mild TBI, but both the access to the CCT and the cost of this imagery are critical factors. We hypothesized that the blood level measurement of S100 protein (S100), a neurological biomarker of cerebral injury, would help to the clinical evaluation of minor/mild head injury events, and would be an economic alternative to CCT for the diagnosis of these pathologies. In addition, a part of the study will explore the prognostic value of such blood level S100 determination for the evaluation of medical/social consequences of minor/mild TBI. Medical objective of the study: to assess the contribution of early determination (to medical care) of S100 for the diagnosis of minor/moderate TBI (TCCMM - Glasgow sup or equal to 9), to determine the usefulness of a second dosage three hours later for the medical decision. In other words, to compare S100 biomarker and CCT considered as a reference ( "Gold Standard") for the diagnosis or exclusion of TCCMM, and to precise its terms of use. Economic objective: to conduct a cost-effectiveness study of blood level determination of S100 vs. CCT for the diagnosis of minor/moderate TBI and its medical/social consequences

This research investigates processes involved with one being able to focus on relevant information and ignore non-relevant information in veterans with PTSD and those with a history of traumatic brain injury. In addition, this study evaluates whether there is an additive effect of having both PTSD and history of TBI on ability to focus attention and inhibit distracting information.