Active clinical trials for "Brain Injuries"

The purpose of this research study is to find out if a specialized helmet that provides low levels of near infrared light, also known as low-level light therapy (LLLT) has any effect on the recovery of people who have recently (within 72h) suffered a moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI).

The purpose of this feasibility study is to determine whether digital games are effective and acceptable in the treatment for patients with traumatic brain injury.

The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of the ANSWERS- VA intervention (Acquiring New Skills While Enhancing Remaining Strengths for Veterans) while also determining it's cost effectiveness in the stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI) populations.

In the search for a novel marker of stroke that could be rapidly assessed in blood, the investigators developed a point-of-care (POC) lateral flow device (LFD) that rapidly (< 15 min) detects levels of a biomarker that is released into blood following neuronal injury associated with stroke and traumatic brain injury. The protein's expression in human brain should serve as a useful biomarker of neuronal injury in stroke and traumatic brain injury.

Dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI gives quantitative and semi-quantitative information about the integrity of the vascular system and can be used to quantify blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity. The BBB plays a pathophysiological role in diabetes, cognitive disorders such as mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Although dysfunctional, changes in BBB integrity for these conditions are thought to be subtle and close to intact values. Recent studies have shown it is possible measure small changes in the BBB integrity as an early sign of disease using DCE MRI. The objective of this study is to apply an optimized DCE imaging protocol and novel image post-processing to obtain new information about the BBB integrity in aging. These techniques show promise for both improving clinical diagnosis, and elucidated the physiology or various disease processes.

Purpose of this study is to investigate the mechanisms of action of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for persistent post-concussive symptoms after mild tramatic brain injury

The intention is to enroll a specific sample of intubated patients. To compare the effect of respiratory gas conditioning on lung deposition and considering the well-known influences of lung pathology on lung deposition, intubated patients with healthy lungs will be included. Postoperative neurosurgery ventilated patients respond perfectly to this criteria. A previous study including 17 postoperative neurosurgery patients was performed in 2013 with a perfect collaboration between the ICU and the Department of Neurosurgery and Anesthesiology.

Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) is damage to the brain caused by a head injury or illness/disease such as stroke or aneurysm. ABI is often associated with poor awareness into ongoing symptoms of damage to the brain, which can be cognitive, physical, and psychological. A multi-disciplinary rehabilitation programme is recommended to help with such symptoms. However, without self-awareness of difficulties, people with ABI can have poor motivation to take part. The study aims to discover whether showing people a short 'preparatory' video about ABI rehabilitation has an effect on self-awareness, and their motivation to take part in rehabilitation offered to them. The study also aims to investigate the feasibility of using the preparatory video on a larger scale across inpatient ABI rehabilitation, by exploring whether staff find delivering the video easy to incorporate into routine practice. People invited to take part in the study will be recruited from a specialist inpatient brain injury rehabilitation unit (BIRT). People who are approached will be given information about what the study will involve, and can choose not to take part. Each participant will be asked to fill out a series of questionnaires. They will then be supported by staff to watch a short video every two/three days, over four weeks. Half of the participants will be shown the video right away, while the other half will wait two weeks, to allow for comparisons between the groups. The video will aim to improve understanding of the kinds of emotional and/or practical difficulties they may be experiencing, and will inform participants about what rehabilitation might be like. After they have regularly watched the video for four weeks both sets of participants will be asked to complete another set of questionnaires, and the staff will be asked to complete an evaluation of how they found delivering the video.

To reduce care resistant behaviors (CRB) among people with dementia residing in nursing homes, to a distance-learning education, training, and coaching program for family caregivers of people with dementia or TBI; assess the efficacy of the intervention for reducing frequency or severity of CRB-triggered symptoms of agitation, aggression, and irritability; assess the efficacy of the intervention for improving quality of life of patients, caregivers, and families; and determine how patient and caregiver characteristics influence the effectiveness of the intervention. 5. Evaluate how the intervention affects the health care costs of people with dementia or TBI.

Dexmedetomidine is a drug with sedative, anxiolytic, and analgesic properties. Benefits of its use covers good sedations without respiratory suppression, reduced circulating catecholamines due to decreased sympathetic transmission and nociceptive transmission blocking resulting in lower needs for postoperative pain management. All these features are beneficial for cardiac surgery patients. What is more, it was find as an anesthesia agent. Recently some protective effects were find, like reduced postoperative delirium occurrence with cardiac surgery dexmedetomidine sedated patients. Other study revealed that patient receiving dexmedetomidine during cardiac surgery and in the first 24 h postoperatively showed significant reductions in in-hospital and 30-day mortality as well as postsurgical delirium. Although dexmedetomidine appears to reduce postoperative delirium, its role in prevention of neurological injury has not been well studied. To fulfil this gap we designed the study to investigate effects of dexmedetomidine use during cardiac surgery (with cardiopulmonary bypass - CPB) and in the first hours postoperatively on biomarkers of brain injury and cognitive function.