Active clinical trials for "Brain Injuries, Traumatic"

Each year, approx. 100 patients with severe brain injury is admitted to the Clinic for Neurorehabilitation/TBI Unit, Rigshospitalet. Severe brain injury results in local oxygen deficiency and acid formation in the brain, which together destroys brain cells. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether it is possible to carry out a ketogenic diet therapy for patients with severe brain injury for six weeks. Ketosis has been shown to be neuroprotective during and after severe brain injury.

The aim of this study is to assess the potential role of magnesium sulphate (MgSo4) as a neuroprotective agent using the Glasgow outcome scale following moderate and severe traumatic brain injury.

For phase II, the objective is to compare the effectiveness of BICS-T with the well-established BICS in-person group. Information gained from phase I (the feasibility study) was used to make necessary changes to the BICS-T protocol. The purpose of this study is to provide survivors of brain injury and caregivers greater support and teach adaptive coping strategies, through a designed and studied a coping skills group specifically for brain injury survivors and their caregivers at the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana (RHI) called the Brain Injury Coping Skills group (BICS).

The focus of this study is to test a treatment program (Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Training; SMART) that was developed to address specific brain functions found to be crucial for the recovery following traumatic brain injury (TBI). New research has shown that when these very specific brain functions are targeted, such as ability to focus on a task while ignoring irrelevant information, brain changes are more significant. SMART emphasizes top-down processing by targeting focused attention, assimilation of information, and mental flexibility and innovation, all higher-order cognitive functions driven by the frontal lobes. Evidence from other top-down cognitive training programs demonstrates their effectiveness in improving cognitive and daily functioning in individuals reporting a TBI. In addition to improving frontal lobe capacity, SMART has also been shown to increase brain blood flow critical for complex thinking and strengthen white matter integrity. The effectiveness of SMART has been extensively tested with a variety of populations, including healthy adults and adolescents, adolescents with brain injuries, healthy seniors and those at risk for Alzheimers, and veterans and civilians with lingering impairment following TBIs. This will be the first study to test its effectiveness with individuals with mild TBI (MTBI) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The SMART program has previously been tested with patients with TBI using an 18-hour training format. When compared to the Brain Health Workshop (BHW), an education-based active learning module, participants in the SMART group (n = 31) demonstrated improvements in gist reasoning, executive function, and memory, generalization of improvement to daily functioning activities and continuation of these gains 6 months posttraining. The training consisted of 15 hours of training conducted over 10 group sessions in the first 5 weeks and a final 3 hours of training at spaced intervals over the next 3 weeks. SMART training has not been tested with patients with PTSD-related neuropsychological impairments. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the efficacy of a shortened training program (9 hours) in improving neurocognitive function in patients with mTBI and/or PTSD.

Severe brain injury (sTBI) is one of the most common causes of long-term disability and is considered the most frequent cause of mortality and serious disability in young adults in industrialized countries. It is defined as an alteration of brain function with loss of consciousness in the acute phase for at least 24 hours (Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) <8) and it can induce a wide range of deficit, including cognitive-behavioural, motors, psychics, language, vision, coordination and balance impairments. Chronic vestibular symptoms such as dizziness and balance deficits (both static and dynamic postural instability) are present in patients with brain injury. These aspects can cause functions limitation and psychological distress, negatively impacting negatively on subjects' quality of life and social reintegration and are considered unfavourable prognostic factors of the recovery process. The literature supports the use of vestibular rehabilitation techniques in patients with mild and moderate brain injury, however, to date, no studies investigated the effect of vestibular rehabilitation in sTBI patients. The main aim of this randomized controlled trail is to verify the effect of a personalized vestibular training on balance and gait disorders in sTBI patients.

Euthyroid sick syndrome (ESS) effects on patients suffering from traumatic brain injury (TBI) have received little attention. Moreover, there is limited evidence that serum levels of thyroid-related hormones might influence functional outcome in the acute phase of brain damage. However, the relationship is complex, and the relevance for functional outcome and the question of therapeutic interventions remain the subject of ongoing researches . Historically, a wide range of brain damage markers have been examined in TBI patients. However, owing to the limited tissue specificity and other concerns, most markers, including neuro-specific enolase and S100B protein, were compromised in routine clinical use . Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) was recently reported to have greater prognostic value than other biomarkers in TBI patients as a monomeric intermediate filament protein concentrated in the astroglial cytoskeleton; GFAP is specific to brain tissue and is not routinely found in peripheral blood circulation. However, GFAP is released after astrocyte death, making it an ideal candidate marker for brain injury patients . Several studies have found that the serum levels of GFAP on admission were significantly increased in TBI patients, also a correlation between serum concentrations and the pathological types of brain damage and clinical outcomes were also reported . However, the changes in serum GFAP over time and the associated predictive utility over the acute days post injury are largely unknown. To study the hypothesis of euthyroid sick syndrome (ESS) traumatic brain injury patients and its relation with GFAP.

The purpose of this study is to obtain evidence of safety and determine the pharmacokinetics (PK) of NNZ-2566 in healthy volunteers, when administered orally.

Mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the most common type of brain injury. Post-mild TBI disability could stem from cognitive, physical, psychological and social dysfunction which resulted in significant disability and unemployment. Long-term behavioral impairments which affected the individual's occupation, lifestyle, and family frequently occurred in individuals with mild to moderate brain injuries who physically fully recovered. In-vitro and in-vivo studies showed a better recovery of cognitive function after administration of exogenous lactate in traumatic brain injury. Therefore, this study is aimed to evaluate the effect of exogenous lactate infusion contained in hyperosmolar sodium lactate solution on cognitive function assessed by Mini Mental State Examination(MMSE)scale.

The SyNAPSe trial will study if giving intravenous (i.v.) progesterone within 8 hours of the injury for a total of 120 hours to severe traumatic brain injury patients improves their recovery.

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the safety and tolerability of different dose levels of glyburide for injection, administered as a bolus dose followed by a 3-day continuous infusion. The secondary objectives are to assess the pharmacokinetics (PK) of glyburide and blood glucose and serum insulin pharmacodynamic (PD) responses to glyburide.