View clinical trials related to Brain Injuries.
Filter by:Screening Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with Fluid-attenuated Inversion Recovery (FLAIR) and Susceptibility Weighted Imaging (SWI) sequences will be performed pre and post season on high school football players. One set of players will wear the Guardian Cap on their five star rated helmets and the other will wear five star rated helmets only. The investigators will compare outcomes of ImPACT scores and MRI findings between the two groups to see if there is a statistical difference in reduction of injury and to establish what the baseline level of MRI findings related to injury from high school football is as well as what the baseline level of injury is prior to the start of the season.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of post-injury hospitalization, disability, and death worldwide. In Nova Scotia, approximately 50% of major trauma reported is head trauma. TBI is predicted to be the most common and expensive neurological condition in Canada through the year 2031. Families and medical teams must often decide on the appropriate level of care for patients with severe TBI and frequently need to consider withdrawal of life support measures. These decisions have implications for patients with severe TBI, costs to the health care system, and rates of organ donation. A reliable method for neurological evaluation at the time of the patient's arrival to the hospital is important, because it is possible that many patients with severe TBI already have permanent brain damage. Assessing this brain damage with clinical tests is difficult because of the nature of patients' injuries and the sedative medication they receive at the time of their hospital admission. Current standard imaging technique for these patients is severely limited in the assessment of the extent and severity of the brain damage. Advanced diagnostic imaging, called Computed Tomography Perfusion (CTP), can help detect permanent brain damage. However, CTP of the head is not currently done for patients with severe TBI when they arrive at the hospital. The investigators want to test whether CTP of the head can detect permanent brain damage among patients with severe TBI.
Post-traumatic brain hypoxia/ischemia develops hours after traumatic brain injury (TBI), and its intensity is directly related to the neurological outcome. The thresholds for irreversible tissue damage following TBI indicate a particular vulnerability of injured brain. Improving brain oxygenation after severe TBI is the focus of modern TBI management in the intensive care unit (ICU). The calculation of cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP), with CPP = mean arterial pressure (MAP) - intracranial pressure (ICP), has become the most used estimator of cerebral blow flow. To prevent ischemia due to elevated ICP, current international guidelines recommend maintaining CPP at 60-70 mmHg and ICP below 20 mmHg. However, episodes of brain hypoxia/ischemia, as assessed with brain tissue oxygen pressure (PbtO2) measurements, might occur despite optimization of CPP and ICP, and have been independently associated with poorer patient outcome. PbtO2 values lower than 15 mmHg for more than 30 minutes were shown to be an independent predictor of unfavorable outcome and death. The aggressive treatment of low PbtO2 was associated with improved outcome compared to standard ICP/CPP-directed therapy in cohort studies of severely head-injured patients. On the basis of these findings, it is hypothesized that an early optimization of brain oxygenation, together with keeping ICP and CPP within recommended values, could reduce the volume of vulnerable lesions following severe TBI and possibly improve neurological outcome.
This study aims to assess the feasibility of Intendu Cognitive Motion-Based Videogames in Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) patients in inpatient treatment and in the community and to evaluate the effects of training on patients' cognitive performance
This is a prospective investigation of the effects of Laughter therapy (LT) on perceived stress, self-efficacy, mood and other wellness measures in people with the following neurological conditions: Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, brain injury, Huntington's Disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, post-stroke, spinal cord injury.
Our central hypothesis is that chronic balance deficits after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) result from impairments in central sensorimotor integration (CSMI) that may be helped by rehabilitation. There are two objectives of this proposal; the first objective is to characterize balance deficits in people with mTBI. The second objective is to use a novel auditory bio-feedback (ABF) device to improve measures central sensorimotor integration and balance control.
Despite the decline in fatal traumatic brain injury (TBI) incidence in recent years, TBI morbidity remains a public health challenge and is the leading cause of disability in the United States. Detailed knowledge of the metabolic alterations following TBI will provide a significant advancement to our understanding of the hypometabolic response to TBI, which is key information for the future development and testing of novel therapeutic interventions that by-pass or compensate for the metabolic dysfunction. The goal of this study is to determine the clinical utility of in vivo 13C MRS to identify specific metabolic alterations following TBI. We hypothesize that following TBI, metabolic pathways are altered causing an incomplete oxidative of glucose in neurons and astrocytes resulting in a decrease in cerebral metabolism.
This is the proof of concept study with multi-modality approach (using intra-thecal bioactive peptides, stem cells, laser and transcranial IV laser and Median Nerve stimulation as adjuvants) in cases of brain death due to traumatic brain injury having diffuse axonal injury to document possibility of reversal of brain death (BD).
Patients with severe brain injuries often have slow accumulating recoveries of function. In ongoing studies, we have discovered that elements of electrical activity during sleep may correlate with the level of behavioral recovery observed in patients. It is unknown whether such changes are causally linked to behavioral recovery. Sleep processes are, however, associated with several critical processes supporting the cellular integrity of neurons and neuronal mechanisms associated with learning and synaptic modifications. These known associations suggest the possibility that targeting the normalization of brain electrical activity during sleep may aid the recovery process. A well-studied mechanism organizing the pattern of electrical activity that characterizes sleep is the body's release of the substance melatonin. Melatonin is produced in the brain and released at a precise time during the day (normally around 8-10PM) to signal the brain to initiate aspects of the sleep process each day. Ongoing research by other scientists has demonstrated that providing a small dose of melatonin can improve the regular pattern of sleep and help aid sleep induction. Melatonin use has been shown to be effective in the treatment of time change effects on sleep ("jet lag") and mood disturbances associated with changes in daily light cues such as seasonal affective disorder. We propose to study the effects of melatonin administration in patients with severe structural brain injuries and disorders of consciousness. We will measure the patient's own timing of release of melatonin and provide a dose of melatonin at night to test the effects on the electrical activity of sleep over a three month period. In addition to brain electrical activity we will record sleep behavioral data and physical activity using activity monitors worn by the patients. Patient subjects in this study will be studied twice during the three month period in three day inpatient visits where they will undergo video monitoring and sampling of brain electrical activity using pasted electrodes ("EEG"), hourly saliva sampling for one day, and participation in behavioral testing.
Traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of death and disability in young adults. Green tea Epigallocatechin -3-gallate (EGCG) supplementation might favorably influenced many of the processes mention in the secondary insult of TBI including neuroinflammation and antioxidative damages. The investigators aim to investigate whether treatment with Epigallocatechin -3-gallate favorably affect outcomes in traumatic brain injury patients. Therefore, in the current randomized double-blind clinical trial, 30 patients (15 patients in each group) with moderate to severe head trauma admitted to university hospital intensive care unit will included. Patients will either receive a daily oral dose of 400 mg EGCG or placebo for 7 days. The major outcomes includes duration of mechanical ventilation, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), and S100 protein level.