Active clinical trials for "Wounds and Injuries"

The purpose of this study is to investigate the long term outcome of patients who receive hypothermia treatment for spinal cord injury. At this institution, intravascular hypothermia has been used for certain patients with spinal cord injury for the past two years. This study will collect data from vital signs and examinations while the patient is in the hospital and also when they follow up as an outpatient after they are discharged or go to a rehabilitation center. This data will then be analyzed and compared only to historically published data from previous studies. The aim of this investigation is to determine if intravascular hypothermia results in a beneficial outcome for patients with spinal cord injury.

To study the association of the thoracic fluid content and acute lung injury during liver transplantation.

The intent of this study is to describe the proportion of trauma patients requiring oxygen before hospital arrival, the amount of oxygen they require, and whether or not the oxygen is beneficial to outcomes.

Running patterns are thought to have a major influence on the development of Running Related Injuries (RRI), however to studies have documented such relationship. Thus, the aim of the study is to investigate the association between running patterns and overuse injuries in runners.

Although conventional risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD) have been identified and routinely used to determine risk for CHD in the general population, a systematic approach to determine population-specific risk for CHD has not been performed prospectively in those with SCI. CHD is a leading cause of death in spinal cord injury, occurring at younger ages than in the able-bodied population. Conventional risk factors for CHD are high serum concentrations of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), low serum concentrations of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), diabetes mellitus (DM), positive smoking history, and positive family history of premature CHD. Coronary calcification (CAC) is a commonly occurring phenomenon that does not necessarily indicate significant obstructive disease. Studies have shown that a strong association exists between coronary calcification and coronary heart disease. The purpose of this study is to compare the CAC scores in persons with SCI with a historical control group of able-bodied persons from a national data base who will be matched for conventional risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD) and to determine the relationship between CAC scores and conventional and emerging risk factors for CAD.

The purpose of this study is to record signatures from the fluid surrounding the spinal cord from people who have an implanted drug infusion system.

The purpose of this study is to determine if certain MRI imaging sequences (pictures) are more helpful to the physicians in determining if a brain tumor has recurred or if the person has radiation injury following their treatment.

This study will look at dietary patterns in individuals with chronic spinal cord injuries and the relationship between these dietary patterns and cardiovascular disease risk factors. The study is a supplement to the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. The dietary history from CARDIA will be used. The investigators' primary hypothesis is the following: Greater whole-grain and dietary fiber intake will be favorably associated with adiposity (BMI and WC) and metabolic CVD risk factors (fasting glucose, fasting insulin, HOMA-IR, diabetes, hsCRP, TC, HDL-C, triglycerides, TC/HDL-C ratio, non-HDL-C, and systolic and diastolic blood-pressure) among a sample of individuals with SCI aged 38-50 who have been injured >1 year.

The aim of this study was to apply the acute kidney injury criteria based on KDIGO classification in a population of patients undergoing cardiac surgery [coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) or cardiac valve surgery (CVS)] and evaluate its impact as a predictor of 30-day mortality.

Accurate documentation in the patient medical record is critical to ensure proper diagnosis coding and subsequent hospital reimbursement. Multiple studies have demonstrated that clinicians often omit diagnoses which may result in insurance company denials and significant delays in payment. In addition, omitting diagnoses decreases the severity of patient illness which is often used as a risk adjustment tool to compare institution and physician outcomes. Medical informatics has been used to help improve accurate diagnosis documentation as well as improve billing efficiency. We plan to utilize a medical informatics program called SIC-IR (Surgical Intensive Care - Infection Registry) to improve documentation and attending billing efficiency within the surgical and trauma intensive care unit (STICU). We propose a six month study: a three month observational evaluation of current billing procedures followed by a three month prospective evaluation using a newly created SIC-IR billing module. The outcome measures will include the number of ICD-9 and CPT codes at discharge per patient, severity of patient illness based on documentation, STICU charges, number of insurance company denials, DRG relative weights, as well as a qualitative assessment of attending physician use of the electronic billing module. The observational and prospective patient populations will be compared for total patient-days in the STICU, ventilator-days, antibiotic-days, infectious complications per patient, and injury severity score (trauma patients only) to ensure the populations are similar and only the documentation and billing changes can account for our measured outcomes. We hypothesize that the SIC-IR billing module will increase the number of patient ICD-9 and CPT codes at discharge, increase severity of STICU patient illness via accurate documentation, increase total STICU charges, decrease insurance company denials, and be an efficient and well accepted electronic medical application.