Active clinical trials for "Brain Injuries"

The use of quantitative, automated, infrared technology for pupillary examination has long been used in ophthalmology and anesthesiology research. Its interest in neurocritical care has progressively grown, in parallel with the advancements in device technology. In this regard, the use of the noninvasive NPi®-200 pupillometer (Neuroptics, Laguna Hills, California, USA) allows the measurement of a series of dynamic pupillary variables (including the percentage pupillary constriction, latency, constriction velocity, and dilation velocity), which can be integrated into an algorithm, to compute the Neurological Pupil index (NPi). The NPi is a proprietary scalar index with values between 0 and 5 (with a 0.1 decimal precision), an NPi value < 3 indicating an abnormal pupillary reactivity. Importantly, the NPi is not influenced by sedation-analgesia, at the doses used in neurocritical care practice, and by mild hypothermia. Preliminary single-center data recently demonstrated that abnormal NPi is associated with worse outcome in patients with traumatic and hemorrhagic ABI, and can be a useful adjunct for ICP monitoring and therapy. There is currently a great need for quantitative tools to predict early prognostication in ABI patients, and the NPi appears of potential great value. We hypothesize that: Abnormal NPi (defined as NPi <3) are strongly predictive of poor GOS-E (1-4) at 6 months after the acute event. NPi=0 is strongly predictive of mortality (GOS 1). Abnormal NPi is predictive of a higher ICP 20 index (number of end-hourly measures of ICP >20 mm Hg divided by the total number of measurements, multiplied by 100) and a greater burden of interventions needed to control ICP (measured by the Therapy Intensity Level scale for ICP management, Therapy Intensity Level (TIL) 4). Methods This international multicentre prospective observational study aims to recruit >400 patients admitted to intensive care units. Duration of the study 18 months, including 12-month of recruitment based on 60 patients/centre plus 6 months GOS-E follow-up.

Researchers have developed a probe that contains infrared light sources that can illuminate the deep brain tissue of the frontal lobe. Photodetectors in the probe detect the backscattered light, which is modulated by pulsation of the cerebral arteries. Changes in the extramural arterial pressure affect the morphology of the recorded optical pulse, so analysis of the acquired signal using an appropriate algorithm could enable the calculation of the intracranial pressure noninvasively (nICP), which would be displayed to clinicians continuously. This pilot study is the first evaluation of the device in patients in who the gold standard comparator of invasive ICP was available. The acquisition of pulsatile optical signals was performed for up to 48 hours in each of the 40 patients who were undergoing invasive ICP monitoring as part of their normal medical treatment. Features of the optical signals would be analysed offline. A machine vector support algorithm would be implemented, with the aim of estimating ICP noninvasively and compared to the gold standard of synchronously acquired invasive ICP data.

The goals of the project are to evaluate a noninvasive monitor of brain metabolism and blood flow in critically ill humans. If validated, such a reliable noninvasive brain blood flow and metabolism monitor, by allowing physiologic and pharmacologic decisions based on real-time brain physiology, potentially will become an important tool for clinicians in their efforts to prevent additional brain tissue death in patients admitted with stroke, brain hemorrhage and traumatic brain injury.

In this project the investigators aim to evaluate olfactory and non-olfactory function in patients within the first 24h following a mild traumatic brain injury (acute mTBI) and compare their results to a group of age and sex matched control patients suffering from an orthopedic injury 24h prior to testing. The investigators then aim to follow them up 1 year after the trauma

This study will assess the effectiveness of a portable goggle system in the diagnosis of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in athletes.

Cases of traumatic and nontraumatic brain damage have high rates of morbidity and mortality. In this study of cases being treated in the ICU for a diagnosis of brain damage, it was aimed to evaluate the relationship between mortality and the distribution of reason for and resulting type of brain damage and to determine other factors affecting mortality.

The current study was designed to investigate the change of serum ficolin-3 levels and assess the prognostic predictive effect of serum ficolin-3 levels in the patients with severe traumatic brain injury.

The purpose of this single center, longitudinal, pilot study is to provide evidence for the use of an eye tracking system as an objective tool to identify mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) related oculomotor dysfunction (OMD) and predict the effectiveness of neurovision rehabilitation (NVR) of OMD. Eye tracking visual stimulus measurements will be compared to objective developmental optometrist (OD) diagnosis and assessments. It will be determined whether an eye tracking system can predict the presence or absence of mTBI related OMD and whether mTBI patients who have OMD based on the eye tracking system will respond positively to NVR.

During invasive mechanical ventilation, maintaining endotracheal tube cuff pressure (Pcuff) around 25 cmH2O is recommended for sealing the upper airways. The continuous control of Pcuff with a simple mechanical device, the Tracoe Smart CuffmanagerTM, has never been assessed. The investigators hypothesize that the Tracoe Smart CuffmanagerTM would allow a reduction of the incidence of underinflation episodes, as compared with the intermittent strategy of Pcuff control.

Positron emission tomography (PET) with 18-fluoro-deoxy-glucose (PET-FDG) is emerging as a promising approach for detecting brain lesions in dementia, among which Alzheimer's disease has been the most widely studied.