Active clinical trials for "Craniocerebral Trauma"

Regular reading with young children strengthens the parent-child relationship and builds their language, literacy and social emotional skills. Parent knowledge of normal variation of infant crying and of the dangers of shaking a baby as well as their ability to cope with infant irritability are likely factors in their successful adjustment to parenthood and the prevention of this tragic act. Purpose: Identify easily implementable interventions for economically disadvantaged mothers in the newborn period which 1) Promote early literacy behaviors and early nurturing parent-child relationships and 2) Increase mother's knowledge of normal crying patterns, the dangers of shaking a baby and her ability to cope with parenting stresses. Design/Methods: A convenience sample of 300 low income (insured by Medicaid) new mothers of healthy singleton, full term infants in the level 1 mother/baby unit at Women & Infants Hospital will be invited to participate in a Randomized Controlled Trial study of educational videos and materials for parents. They will be randomized into one of two intervention groups. 1) The Ready to Learn (RTL) arm will receive a DVD in both Spanish and English and a bilingual booklet (both produced by Parents' action for Children) addressing the benefits of reading, talking and playing with young children, as well as a new children's board book. 2) The All Babies Cry (ABC) arm will receive a DVD in both, Spanish and English and a bilingual booklet (both produced by VIDA) explaining crying as part of normal infant behavior, highlighting signs of parental distress and providing strategies to sooth parents and their children. We will enroll 75 mothers who speak Spanish primarily at home in each intervention group, as well as 75 mothers who speak primarily English. The RTL mothers will serve as controls for the ABC mothers and vice versa. Before reviewing the materials, mothers will be asked to respond to a baseline interview with socio-demographic information, questions regarding Early Literacy promotion, reading with children and their own reading habits as well as general knowledge on the prevention of shaking a baby and handling their own stress. Follow up phone interviews will be conducted by a bilingual research assistant blind to the intervention status at 2-5 months post-partum containing similar questions. Consenting mothers will receive a bag of diapers at the completion of enrollment interview as an incentive for participating in the study. Data will be entered into Excel and transferred into STATA for analysis. Frequency counts will be generated for demographic, literacy related and parental knowledge and stress variables in the two intervention arms. Chi-Square and T-tests will be used to compare literacy and parental knowledge outcomes for each intervention group at both follow up interviews. Hypotheses: 1) Mothers in the RTL branch will recognize the importance of reading to their babies, initiating this activity at earlier ages and reading more often with them. 2) Mothers in the ABC branch will gain an understanding of crying as part of normal infant behavior and build strategies to sooth themselves and their newborns.

The objective of this study is to adapt the oxygraphy technique on human adipocytes and to characterize respiration measurements according to patients' body mass index and white adipose tissue localization (subcutaneous vs visceral).

The objective of the study is to compare the effects of 48 hours ketamine infusion versus sufentanil infusion on brain glutamate concentrations measured with microdialysis after traumatic brain injury. We hypothesize that ketamine infusion will decrease high glutamate values faster than sufentanil.

This is a randomized, controlled clinical trial at three sites to determine the safety and preliminary efficacy of the study drug to treat severe head trauma (GCS 4-8). It is hypothesized that the drug may lower pressure in the brain, reduce mortality and the patient may have improved neurological function following treatment.

The aim of this study is to determine the effects of an acute session of physical exercise on cognitive functioning and humor of traumatic brain injury patients and to investigate whether different cognitive responses can be achieved with different intensities of exercise (moderate and vigorous). The investigators hypothesize that while moderate intensity physical exercise may be beneficial to cognitive functioning, vigorous intensity may be detrimental to TBI patients, as physical fatigue may impair alertness and other higher cognitive functions.

Partial assisted mechanical ventilation modes are widely used to manage respiratory failure. It has been demonstrated that they can reduce complications related to mechanical ventilation and neuromuscular blocking agents administration. During partially assisted ventilation, there is no predefined respiratory rate and the patient must trigger each breath. One of the most used partial assisted mode is pressure support ventilation (PSV), which plays a key role in weaning from mechanical ventilation, especially in neuro-cranial diseases. Neurally adjusted ventilatory assist mode (NAVA) has been introduced in clinical practice in recent years. It has been widely demonstrated that NAVA is able to guarantee gas exchange in the same way as PSV in patients admitted to ICU for respiratory failure. Thus, NAVA can improve patient-ventilator interaction reducing the incidence of asynchronous events and favoring the patient's own ventilatory pattern. Nevertheless, NAVA does not appear to have been applied in neuro ICU patients. In a study conducted on non-neurosurgical infants has been demonstrated negative effects of asynchronous events on cerebral blood flow velocities, examined with transcranial Doppler technique. In the present pilot study, the investigators would like to compare NAVA and PSV ventilation influence on cranial blood flow, evaluated with Trans-Cranial Color Doppler, in patients admitted to ICU for neurological injuries.

The purpose of the current study is proposed to prospectively assess how accurately the BrainScope® Ahead™ M-100 can distinguish risk categories for acute head injury.

Most patients with CPTH present with additional major cognitive, behavioral and somatic problems. Most drugs used currently have a negative influence on cognition. Therefore, treatment strategies addressing both the headache and cognitive disturbances in patients with CPTH are necessary. (CPTH; Chronic Post Traumatic Headache).

This study evaluates the effect of a physical exercise + caregiver skills training on feelings of burden, mood, and biological markers of inflammation in persons who provide care for Veterans with a TBI or dementia. Half of the caregivers will participate in a balance and flexibility + caregiver skills training program, while the other half will participate in a moderate/high intensity aerobic and resistance + caregiver skills training program.

This is a single-center, prospective, randomized, comparative, double-blind controlled clinical study mend to assess the effect of enteral feeding with Oxepa (a fish oil-based nutrition), compared to an isocaloric control, on oxygenation and clinical outcomes in mechanically ventilated trauma patients. The study population will be adults admitted to the ICU due to multiple-trauma or head trauma as a result of a gun shut, motor vehicle accidents, fall, workplace accident etc.