Active clinical trials for "Brain Injuries"

An early and efficient enteral nutritional support could improve the clinical outcomes of brain injured critically ill patients. Gastrointestinal feeding intolerance defined as an increased gastric residual volume frequently occurs in these patients. Previous experimental studies have suggested that a small-peptide enteral feeding formula could promote the gastric emptying compared to a whole-protein formula. An improved gastrointestinal tolerance of enteral nutrition should allow a rapid increase in the daily caloric intake and enhance nutritional support of brain injured critically ill patients.

In this study of patients with moderate traumatic brain injury with frontal brain contusions patients will be randomized to treatment with a single dose of either D-cycloserine or placebo given 48-72 hours after injury. Patients will undergo intensive neurocognitive testing at 3 and 6 months after injury to assess whether treatment with a single dose of D-cycloserine improves cognitive outcome after moderate brain injury.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) occurs in almost 20% of patients with severe acute brain injury and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. A massive increase in sympathetic activity and an increased production of proinflammatory cytokines released into the systemic circulation are the most important recognized mechanisms. Altered blood brain barrier after injury causes spillover of inflammatory mediators from the brain into the systemic circulation leading to peripheral organs damage. The adrenergic surge induces an increase in vascular hydrostatic pressure and lung capillary permeability, causing an alteration of alveolar capillary barrier with fluid accumulation, resulting in ARDS. The main goal of mechanical ventilation after acute brain injury are the maintenance of optimal oxygenation, and a tight control of carbon dioxide tension, although ventilatory settings to be used to obtain these targets, while avoiding secondary insults to the brain, are not clearly identified. Protective ventilatory strategy has been positively evaluated first in patients with ARDS, and then in those undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass or lung resection surgery, or in brain death organ donors, but data on the effect of protective mechanical ventilation on patients with acute brain injury are still lacking even if this is a population with recognized risk factors for ARDS. Therefore, the primary aim of this multi-center, prospective, randomized, controlled trial is to investigate whether a protective ventilatory strategy, in the early phase after severe acute brain injury, is associated with a lower incidence of ARDS, avoiding any further damage to the brain. Secondary aim is to evaluate if a protective ventilatory strategy is associated with reduced duration of mechanical ventilation, incidence of organ failure, intensive care unit length of stay, and lower concentrations of plasma inflammatory cytokines, without adversely affect in neurological outcome.

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.

To explore the cerebral protective effect of midazolam in patients with traumatic brain injury, we will collect blood samples from patients treated with or without midazolam when the patient is admitted to ICU, 24 h, 48 h and 72 h after the admission before the use of midazolam for patients in group N1, and before the patient is treated with midazolam, 24 h， 48 h, 72 h after the use of midazolam for patients in group N2. Parameters of cerebral metabolism and inflammatory response will be obtained from the blood samples or the cerebrospinal fluid. With the aforementioned parameters, the relationship between clinical outcome and cerebral metabolism and inflammatory response will be detected with statistical method.

Prospective, Open Label, Cohort Study in Traumatic Brain Injury Patients. The goal of this study is to assess the safety of NTx®-265. NTx®-265 will be administered over 9 days, and patients will be followed for an additional 6 months.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the potential benefits of a psychological therapy, called cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), for improving emotional well being after acquired brain injury and to demonstrate its efficacy in both under telephone (T-CBT) and face-to-face group (G-CBT) modes of delivery compared to an educational control group.

This project seeks to determine the effect of prehospital resuscitation with hypertonic saline vs. conventional crystalloids on the inflammatory response after injury. The leading cause of late mortality following injury is multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS), which results from a dysfunctional inflammatory response after injury. Previous studies suggest that hypertonic saline may be beneficial by modulating this initial response and decreasing subsequent organ injury. This project takes advantage of a unique opportunity, afforded by an NIH-funded multi-center clinical trial of hypertonic resuscitation (conducted by the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium), to obtain blood samples from patients enrolled in this trial to analyze inflammatory responses early after hypertonic vs. conventional resuscitation. This study was an ancillary study to the main randomized clinical trial and thus prospective observational in nature The proposed study will be carried out in experiments grouped in three Specific Aims: Aim 1 provides a thorough investigation of the immunomodulatory response following hypertonic resuscitation with regard to neutrophil, monocyte, and T cell responses at serial time points after injury and resuscitation. Aim 2 comprises experiments to investigate the mechanisms by which hypertonicity may alter inflammatory cell signaling. Aim 3 seeks to correlate the laboratory findings with clinical endpoints reflective of immune dysfunction including inflammation, organ failure, nosocomial infection, and sepsis. The investigators hypothesize that hypertonic resuscitation will be associated with modulation of the excessive inflammatory response seen after injury and thus will result in reduced rates of inflammatory organ injury.

In this randomized, controlled clinical trial, we will evaluate the effects of (1) a brain-training program that uses real-time neurofeedback in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to allow people to learn how to gain voluntary control over activity in targeted brain regions and/or (2) 8 weeks of computer-based cognitive training using a software program (Cognitive Remediation for Brain Injury (CRBI)) versus control training tasks on cognitive learning and symptoms. In addition, the investigators will measure brain function (active and resting functional magnetic resonance imaging) and structure (high resolution magnetic resonance imaging) before and after treatment.

To test the safety and feasibility of a new treatment for adolescents who are slow to recover from a sport-related concussion, the investigators are conducting a randomised controlled trial comparing treatment as usual with an active rehabilitation program that involves sub-symptom threshold cardiac exertion, sport-specific coordination activities, and positive visualisation techniques.