Active clinical trials for "Wounds and Injuries"

Objectives include: 1) establishing a psychometrically sound traumatic brain injury (TBI) screening measure for use among homeless veterans; 2) identifying the prevalence of those that screen positive for TBI among homeless veterans seeking VA services; and 3) comparing psychiatric and psychosocial outcomes between those with and without a history of TBI.

The purpose of the study is to determine the best ways to prevent infections after heart surgery. Participation in the study will last at most 3 months after heart surgery. The study will only collect information about the care patients receive during the planned surgery. No new testing or procedures will be done. Patients will receive only the tests or procedures the doctor already has planned. This kind of study is an observational study, because all that is planned to do is observe the care patients receive and how well they do during treatment. The information collected should help to improve the quality of surgical care in the future.

HandTutor is a computerized system designed to evaluate and rehabilitate hand function. It is composed of a glove with optic sensors detecting the movements of the wrist and the fingers with a biofeedback software designed to evaluate and then to exercise the hand movements through supplying a variety of computer graphic patterns. The HandTutor has been used and tested with a stroke population, and it seems potential to be used with hand injuried population. As a first step, it is important to investigate the characteristics of the system and how it is matching the hand injuried population. The purpose if this study is to characterize the HandTuror system and the focused objectives are: To examine the test-retest reliability of the system when measuring the range of motion (ROM) of the the fingers among healthy people (control group). To examine the correlation between the ROM measured by the HandTutor and the ROM measured by conventional assessment tools (goniometer). To examine the ability of the system to distinguish between healthy people and hand injured people. To examine the correlation between the performance in the HandTutor (in the games part), and the performance in functional activities. To examine the participants feedback for using the HandTutor (degree of enjoyment).

We will utilize a set of imaging modalities including computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), and a suite of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tools, to investigate the changes in the human brain resulting from mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).

Organ failure following trauma is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. It appears that the development of organ failure is a direct result of an altered immune response. This altered response results in the production of circulating factors in the blood that causes direct injury to the injured patients' organs. The mechanism in which this altered immune response occurs is unknown. Based on work we have performed in our laboratory, we believe that this response is initiated on the cell membrane of particular immune cells known as macrophages. Although the cell membrane may appear uniform, it is not. The membrane is composed of specific segments that allow proteins to associate with each other forming receptors that are required for immune cell activation. These specific membrane components are composed of various lipids and cholesterol, and have been termed lipid rafts. Based on our laboratory work it appears that these lipid rafts can be altered following injury. In particular both the lipid and protein content within these raft segments may be altered allowing immune cells to become active leading to the production of factors that directly injure normal cells and organs. Thus, we plan to examine if these laboratory findings can be seen in patients suffering from trauma who develop clinical organ failure at Harborview Medical Center. If this is accomplished, this data will lead to the development of both prognostic and therapeutic interventions for the optimal care of injured patient

Little is known about the role of collateral damage in patients with high grade liver injuries (LI). This retrospective single centre study investigates the safety of the non-operative management of patients with high grade blunt liver injuries (NOMLI) and the impact of to the LI collateral intra- and extra-abdominal damage on interventions and outcome. We first hypothesized that NOMLI can be safely achieved also in high-grade liver injured patients, the management of trauma patients with LI mainly consist of the treatment of collateral damages and their complications, and causes of death are in the majority of cases not liver related. A retrospective study involving 183 patients with blunt hepatic injuries was therefore carried out to investigate these hypotheses.

The purpose of the study is to determine if a specific blood protein, S-100B, can help predict who will have a traumatic abnormality on head CT scan after a concussion. We will compare the levels of this protein in the subject's blood to the initial head CT scan and to how the subject is feeling one month after injury. We hope that the information we collect in this trial will help us determine who needs a head CT scan after a concussion and who may be more likely to have trouble recovering from a concussion.

The primary purpose of this study is to correlate new cardiac imaging modalities (2D, 3D echocardiography, contrast echocardiography, strain analysis and cardiac MRI) to biochemical parameters as the L-arginine-nitric oxide pathway and inflammatory cascades to characterize the reperfusion injury following myocardial infarction and thus providing a basis for further diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

The study is designed to assess the feasibility of evaluating YSPSL for the amelioration of ischemia reperfusion injury following liver transplantation by administering YSPSL into the liver graft directly ex vivo via the portal vein and to the recipient intravenously prior to reperfusion. This study is an extension of the recent pilot study YSPSL-0002 with an almost identical study protocol. The rationale of this and the previous study is based on the recent observation that P-selectin expression has been associated in liver grafts with prolonged cold storage times and rejection. By examining biomarkers of IRI including P-selectin by immunohistochemistry and/or quantitative PCR, liver histology and hepatic blood flow using established techniques, the goal of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of using these modalities for future studies of safety and efficacy.

This research, aimed to verify whether the use of vascular ultrasonography (VUS) could lead to better results in the peripheral venous access implementation in children. Objectives: To compare, regardless of the number of venous puncture attempts, peripheral venous access obtained in children, according to VUS use or traditional method for peripheral intravenous catheter (PIC) insertion; assertiveness in the use of PIC in children, defined as success in the first attempt of puncture and PIC withdrawal according to release of treatment, related to VUS or traditional method and to describe the influence of VUS on PIC dwell time and development of local complications related to the use of intravenous therapy in children.