Active clinical trials for "Brain Injuries"

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is one of the most common reasons behind emergency department (ED) visits. A small portion of mTBI patients will develop an intracranial lesion that might require neurosurgical intervention. Several guidelines have been developed to help direct these patients for head Computerized Tomography (CT) scanning, but they lack specificity, mainly focus on ruling out lesions, and do not estimate the risk of lesion development. The aim of this retrospective observational study is to create a risk stratification score that predicts the likelihood of intracranial lesion development, lesion progression, and need for neurosurgical management in patients with mTBI presenting to the ED. Eligible patients are adults (≥ 15 years) with mTBI (defined as admission Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) 13-15) who presented to the ED within 24 hours of injury to any ED in Stockholm, Sweden between 2010-2020. Reasons for ED visit and Internal Classification of Disease (ICD) codes will be used to screen for patients. Machine-learning models will be applied. The primary outcome will be a traumatic lesion on head CT, defined as a cerebral contusion, subdural haematoma, epidural haematoma, subarachnoid haemorrhage, intraventricular haemorrhage, diffuse axonal injury, skull fracture, traumatic infarction or sinus thrombosis. The secondary outcomes will be any clinically significant lesion, defined as an intracranial finding that led to neurosurgical intervention, discontinuation or reversal of anticoagulant or antiplatelet medication, hospital admission > 48 hours due to the TBI, or death.

The investigators will carry out multi-center and large sample research based on the Chinese population, screen the optimal diagnostic and prognosis recognition biomarkers and analyze the diagnostic critical cutoff values in patients with mild to moderate traumatic brain injury, so as to provide a substantial basis for clinical diagnosis and prognosis recognition.

The study aims to identify factors that predict the medium and long-term outcome of patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) undergoing early neurological rehabilitation. In this prospective, observational study, 130 DOC patients are going to be included (36 months). At study entry, different routine data, disease severity and functional status are documented for each patient. In addition, MRI, EEG and evoked potentials are measured within the first week. The level of consciousness is recorded with the Coma-Recovery-Scale-Revised and serves as the primary outcome parameter. Complications, comorbidities, functional status and leve of consciousness are assessed weekly. After eight weeks, the measurement of the MRI, the EEG and the evoked potentials are repeated. After 3, 6 and 12 months, the Glasgow Outcome Scale-Revised is used to followed up the current status of the patients.

The purpose of this study is to collect and compare information from cranial ultrasounds, magnetic resonance imaging scans, neurological exam and neuropsychological assessments of children. The investigators hope that the information collected in this study will help with early screening, diagnosis and treatment of brain injury in newborns as well as identify a connection between MR imaging (MRI-magnetic resonance imaging, MRS-magnetic resonance spectroscopy) and neurodevelopmental outcome.

The main purpose of this project is to identify the medium-term prognostic factors for patients with Severe Acquired Brain Injuries and evaluate their impact. The secondary aim is to create a system of continuous assessment of the quality of care for each rehabilitation unit.

This is an observational study in neurocritical care units at University of California San Francisco Medical Center (UCSFMC), Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFGH), and Duke University Medical Center. In this study, the investigators will primarily use the monitor mode of the Transcranial Doppler (TCD, non-invasive FDA approved device) to record cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) signals from the Middle Cerebral Artery and Internal Carotid Artery. TCD data and intracranial pressure (ICP) data will be collected in the following four scenarios. Each recording is up to 60 minutes in length. Multimodality high-resolution physiological signals will be collected from brain injured patients: traumatic brain injury, subarachnoid and intracerebral hemorrhage, liver failure, and ischemic stroke. This is not a hypothesis-driven study but rather a signal database development project with a goal to collect multimodality brain monitoring data to support development and validation of algorithms that will be useful for future brain monitoring devices. In particular, the collected data will be used to support: Development and validation of noninvasive intracranial pressure (nICP) algorithms. Development and validation of continuous monitoring of neurovascular coupling state for brain injury patients Development and validation of noninvasive approaches of detecting elevated ICP state. Development and validation of approaches to determine most likely causes of ICP elevation. Development and validation of approaches to detect acute cerebral hemodynamic response to various neurovascular procedures.

Although neuroplasticity of the brain is high in childhood, some neuropsychological sequelae could persist over the long term in children with Acquired Brain Injury (ABI). Many children with TBI, show deficits in pragmatic abilities that usually persist. Pragmatic difficulties have been observed also in children with sequelae of brain neoplasms . The lack of validated assessment tools for this population is described in literature. This limit is also valid for the tests that assess pragmatic abilities. The tests that SLPs usually administer investigate only the comprehension of verbal pragmatic and, sometimes the comprehension of linguistic and emotional prosody as well. This could lead to the risk that, sometimes, some pragmatic abilities might not be included in the evaluation. Moreover, it leads to a harder definition of the treatment aims and a harder objective demonstration of treatment outcomes. For these reasons, it is important to use an assessment tool that provides information on all the pragmatic abilities, not only in input but also in output. Some Italian researchers, recently, developed a test that investigates all these areas. It is called "ABaCo", and it is based on the Cognitive Pragmatics Theory. This theory is focused on cognitive processes underlying human communication. This test is standardized on a normative group of 300 adults. It was developed with the aim of assessing pragmatic abilities in adults with brain injuries. The assessor shows short videos to the patient, and he/her has to complete or understand the interaction transmitted through different communication channels. The authors also created an adaptation of this test for children aged 5 to 8.6 years old, modifying some items. After that, they administered this adaptation of the test to 390 healthy children. In another study, the authors administered this version of the batteries to children with autism spectrum disorders and to a control group of healthy children, matched by age and sex. Considering all the studies that already exist for the application of this assessment tool in childhood and adolescence, and the perspective of a standardization for developmental ages, this study aims to investigate whether this test could be useful to detect pragmatic difficulties also in children with ABI.

Early prediction of outcomes after acute brain injury (ABI) remains a major unsolved problem. Presently, physicians make predictions using clinical examination, traditional scoring systems, and statistical models. In this study, we will use a novel technique, "SeeMe," to objectively assess the level of consciousness in patients suffering from comas following ABI. SeeMe is a program that quantifies total facial motion over time and compares the response after a spoken command (i.e. "open your eyes") to a pre-stimulus baseline.

Children are known to have devastating impact from traumatic brain injury (TBI). The focus of treatment of severe TBI is to limit secondary insult which can aggravate brain injury and worsen outcome and is supported by monitoring brain pressure (ICP) and arterial pressure (ABP). These pressures, if incorporated in Multi-modality monitoring can be used to interpret state of mechanisms used by brain to maintain normal blood flow. This has been advised to guide management of severe TBI in adults, however, there is limited experience with advanced brain monitoring in children. The investigators propose to study the use of this in children with severe TBI. Children (up to 16 years of age) with a severe TBI are referred to a neurosurgical unit (NSU) and admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) as part of usual NHS clinical practice. All patients with a severe TBI require a monitoring wire to be inserted into the brain to read the pressure inside the skull and a similar device in an artery to monitor the blood pressure. These recordings are documented by a PICU nurse at a prescribed frequency. Without interrupting this clinical practice investigators propose to record these values using computer software called ICM+. These recordings will provide real time analysis and a continual recording of important parameters which will provide the study with much needed information on the patterns of pressures in the brain after this injury in children. All patients will be followed up for 12 months to see how well they recover, neuropsychology assessment will be performed by a Neuropsychologist at the recruiting centre using a standardised form.

Robotic assisted laparoscopic surgery has become an alternative to open or laparoscopic technique in various surgical fields. Robot assisted laparoscopic surgery is preferred by surgeons and patients due to easy accessibility, lower blood loss and lower transfusion rates. However, robotic assisted laparoscopic surgery can cause significant changes in cardiovascular, respiratory, metabolic and cerebral physiology because it requires a deep trendy position. When long -lasting deep trendelenburg position is applied, the cerebral autoregulation is impaired. In the literature, the presence of cases with brain edema is shown. In recent years, many biomarkers have been used in the evaluation of brain damage. S100 Calcium Binding Protein (S100β), N Ron specific enolase (NSE), Glial Fibrils are among the biomarkers used to show acidic protein (GFAP) brain damage. The S100β is specific and is mainly produced by astrocytes and enters the bloodstream after neuron damage. Glial fibrils is an acidic protein (GFAP), a protein encoded by the GFAP gene in humans, an intermediate filament protein produced in the central nervous system. Neuron specific enolase (NSE) is one of the enzymes that increase brain damage encoded by Enolase 2 (ENO2) gene. Mini Mental State Examination and Montreal Cognitive Assessment will be performed to determine neurological changes developing in patients. The purpose of this study; Robotic assisted laparoscopic surgery is to examine the brain damage that may develop in patients due to deep trendelenburg position in patients with the said biomarkers and to evaluate the anesthesia methods applied in these surgery in line with the study results.