Active clinical trials for "Brain Injuries, Traumatic"

Patients with a diagnosis of moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) will be enrolled. Subjects will be randomly assigned to receive either MLC901 (Specified Drug Code) or placebo capsules three times per day over 6 months. Evaluation of patients will be carried out at baseline as well as at 3-month and 6-month follow-up visits. Modified Rankin Scale (mRS) and Glasgow outcome scale (GOS) will be used to examine patients. Efficacy will be evaluated by comparing these two scores between the 2 groups at follow-up visits.

Comparing the efficacy of Intracthecal Baclofen dose between the Prometra II and Medtronic SynchroMed II for patients with spasticity and with current a current SyncroMed II pump needing replacement.

In response to "conscious" EEG findings related to detectable cognitive function that reliably denote awareness in vegetative state patients, in the current study, we will assess the covert conscious EEG activity (as well as standard clinical overt measures) and neuroplasctic propensity (i.e., changes in EEG spectral power synchronization values following tDCS intervention) in vegetative-state patients receiving repetitive transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) treatment over frontal motor areas for a period of two weeks. In support of this approach, a recent tDCS study with vegetative and minimally conscious patients implied that a twenty minutes anodal stimulation (i.e., excitatory stimulation) to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) significantly increased CRS-R scores versus sham (placebo: non-active stimulation) stimulation condition. It was noted that this tDCS effect was more pronounced in minimally conscious state patients versus vegetative state patients excluding effects of chronicity or etiology. Thus, the investigators in this study suggested that tDCS could be effective in improving cognitive recovery in severely brain-injured patients. However, their findings would benefit neural activation correlates that could support their conclusion regarding the effectiveness of this type of non-invasive intervention in promoting neurocognitive recovery. Most importantly, tDCS is safe for use in humans, has no adverse effects, is considered the most non-invasive transcranial stimulation method because it uses extremely weak currents (0.5 to 2 mA), and, is known to only temporarily shift the neuron's membrane potential towards excitation/inhibition. In regard to the method's potential to induce functional recovery in vegetative state patients, recent clinical studies indicate that tDCS could counteract the negative effects of brain damage by influencing neurophysiological mechanisms, and is likely to contribute to the "formation of functionally meaningful connections and the maintenance of existing pathways" .

The currently proposed study addresses a critical need in the clinical care of school-aged children with TBI through the modification of an existing, proven efficacious treatment protocol for learning and memory deficits in persons with moderate to severe TBI, the modified Story Memory Technique (mSMT), as well as the conduct of a pilot double blind, placebo-controlled, RCT of this new pediatric adaptation of the mSMT. Over a decade of research and development conducted at our center has demonstrated the mSMT to be effective for improving new learning and memory in adults with TBI, across three realms of functioning: objective behavior, brain functioning and everyday life. This convincing data provides Class I evidence supporting the efficacy of the mSMT for improving new learning and memory in adults with TBI. Clinical applications around the world have equally attested to its utility in the clinical care of adults with TBI. This highlights the tremendous potential of the mSMT to vastly improve the everyday lives and educational successes of children and adoles-cents living with TBI and the resultant learning and memory deficits. The currently proposed pilot work will begin to document that efficacy. The results of this study therefore have the potential to change clinical practice, inform policy, and improve the lives of children and adolescents living with TBI.

Spontaneous hyperventilation is common in severe traumatic brain injury patients and correlates closely with poor outcomes. How to treat this pathological condition remain unsolved. Remifentanil is a frequently used short-acting opioid, has the potent side-effect of dose-dependent respiratory inhibition. Specifically, it prolongs the expiratory time only and does not influence the respiratory drive. Among the safety range, the investigators will determine an ideal dose of remifentanil to maintain PaCO2 between 35 to 45 mmHg. The investigators will monitor the cerebral blood flow of the middle cerebral artery and the internal carotid artery to validate cerebral perfusion improvement.

In this study of patients with moderate traumatic brain injury with frontal brain contusions patients will be randomized to treatment with a single dose of either D-cycloserine or placebo given 48-72 hours after injury. Patients will undergo intensive neurocognitive testing at 3 and 6 months after injury to assess whether treatment with a single dose of D-cycloserine improves cognitive outcome after moderate brain injury.

To explore the cerebral protective effect of midazolam in patients with traumatic brain injury, we will collect blood samples from patients treated with or without midazolam when the patient is admitted to ICU, 24 h, 48 h and 72 h after the admission before the use of midazolam for patients in group N1, and before the patient is treated with midazolam, 24 h， 48 h, 72 h after the use of midazolam for patients in group N2. Parameters of cerebral metabolism and inflammatory response will be obtained from the blood samples or the cerebrospinal fluid. With the aforementioned parameters, the relationship between clinical outcome and cerebral metabolism and inflammatory response will be detected with statistical method.

Prospective, Open Label, Cohort Study in Traumatic Brain Injury Patients. The goal of this study is to assess the safety of NTx®-265. NTx®-265 will be administered over 9 days, and patients will be followed for an additional 6 months.

This project seeks to determine the effect of prehospital resuscitation with hypertonic saline vs. conventional crystalloids on the inflammatory response after injury. The leading cause of late mortality following injury is multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS), which results from a dysfunctional inflammatory response after injury. Previous studies suggest that hypertonic saline may be beneficial by modulating this initial response and decreasing subsequent organ injury. This project takes advantage of a unique opportunity, afforded by an NIH-funded multi-center clinical trial of hypertonic resuscitation (conducted by the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium), to obtain blood samples from patients enrolled in this trial to analyze inflammatory responses early after hypertonic vs. conventional resuscitation. This study was an ancillary study to the main randomized clinical trial and thus prospective observational in nature The proposed study will be carried out in experiments grouped in three Specific Aims: Aim 1 provides a thorough investigation of the immunomodulatory response following hypertonic resuscitation with regard to neutrophil, monocyte, and T cell responses at serial time points after injury and resuscitation. Aim 2 comprises experiments to investigate the mechanisms by which hypertonicity may alter inflammatory cell signaling. Aim 3 seeks to correlate the laboratory findings with clinical endpoints reflective of immune dysfunction including inflammation, organ failure, nosocomial infection, and sepsis. The investigators hypothesize that hypertonic resuscitation will be associated with modulation of the excessive inflammatory response seen after injury and thus will result in reduced rates of inflammatory organ injury.

In this randomized, controlled clinical trial, we will evaluate the effects of (1) a brain-training program that uses real-time neurofeedback in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to allow people to learn how to gain voluntary control over activity in targeted brain regions and/or (2) 8 weeks of computer-based cognitive training using a software program (Cognitive Remediation for Brain Injury (CRBI)) versus control training tasks on cognitive learning and symptoms. In addition, the investigators will measure brain function (active and resting functional magnetic resonance imaging) and structure (high resolution magnetic resonance imaging) before and after treatment.