View clinical trials related to Brain Injuries.
Filter by:Researchers are trying to assess how accurately and safely NIRS non-invasive monitoring can detect changes in intracranial pressure to determine if this noninvasive device can be used instead of invasive monitoring with Licox in the future.
Transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) is a non-invasive form of brain stimulation that has previously been to shown to have therapeutic potential in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients. In this study, the study team will use a brain activity monitor (electroencephalogram, EEG) and a computer-based task to observe the effects of different forms of tES, like transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial pulsed current stimulation (tPCS), on impulse control and sustained attention in people with TBI. Additionally, the study team will measure how much tDCS and tPCS affect the brain activity of a specific area of the brain associated with impulse control and attention. Problems with response inhibition have been shown to make rehabilitation more difficult for people with TBI. It also reduces social functioning and can also negatively affect job performance, which ultimately lead to a decreased quality of life. A better understanding of the effects of tES in TBI patients could be informative in finding out what its therapeutic potential is for this population.
The purpose of this research study is to develop a method to improve thinking difficulties in individuals who have experienced a traumatic brain injury and report experiencing difficulties in attention and concentration. This study aims to understand how cognitive rehabilitation of attention difficulties affects brain activity.
Hypoxic ischemic brain injury (HIBI) is the ensuing brain injury after cardiac arrest and is the primary cause of adverse outcome. HIBI is caused by low oxygen delivery to the brain. The patient's blood pressure is primary determinant of oxygen delivery to the brain. International guidelines recommend maintaining uniform blood pressure targets in all patients, however, this 'one size fits all approach' fails to account for individual baseline differences between patient's blood pressures and extent of underlying disease. Recently, 'autoregulation monitoring', a novel brain monitoring technique, has emerged as a viable tool to identify patient specific blood pressures after brain injury. This personalized medicine approach of targeting patient specific blood pressure (MAPopt) is associated with improved outcome in traumatic brain injury. It has not been evaluated in HIBI after cardiac arrest. Recently, I completed a first-in-human study demonstrating the ability to identify MAPopt in HIBI patients using neuromonitoring (microcatheters inserted into the brain tissue). The proposed study in this grant is to take the next step and investigate the changes in key brain physiologic variables (brain blood flow and oxygenation) before and after therapeutically targeting MAPopt in HIBI patients. This interventional study will serve as the basis to embark on a pilot randomized control trial of MAPopt targeted therapy versus standard of care in HIBI patients after cardiac arrest.
Increase in intracranial pressure (ICP) could be associated with increase in positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) level. Data are however disparate and interactions between ventilation with high PEEP and intracranial circulation are still debated. Individual patient's chest wall elastance could have a key role in determining the effects of PEEP on ICP, since it dictates which proportion of the applied PEEP is transmitted to the pleural space, thus increasing central venous pressure (CVP) and reducing cerebral venous return. Measurement of esophageal pressure with a dedicated probe allows partitioning of respiratory system elastance into its lung and chest wall components, thus permitting to study this phenomenon. Multimodal intracranial monitoring permits to study the effects of PEEP on more advanced brain-specific indices such as brain tissue oxygen (PtiO2), cerebral microdialysis data, transcranial doppler ultrasound-derived flow measurements and automated pupillometry, besides ICP. This study aims to test the association between the ratio of chest wall to respiratory system elastance and PEEP-induced variations in ICP and brain-specific multimodal monitoring indices. This study will evaluate the relative role of other selected measures of respiratory mechanics, hemodynamic variables and intracranial compliance, in order to establish the role of individual respiratory mechanics in the interplay of physiological factors affecting the effects of positive pressure ventilation on the brain. Patients will undergo two periods of ventilation at two different levels of PEEP (5 and 15 cmH2O) in a randomized cross-over order. At the end of each period, cardiorespiratory clinical data, ICP and other advanced multimodal neuromonitoring data (brain tissue oxygen tension, cerebral microdyalisis analytes, transcranial doppler ultrasound and automated infrared pupillometry data) will be collected. Systematic respiratory mechanics assessment (including calculation of chest wall and lung elastances and estimation of the amount of recruitment versus overdistension due to PEEP by means of a single-breath derecruitment trial), echocardiography and arterial blood gas analysis will be performed.
Background: People who have had a traumatic brain injury (TBI) often experience fatigue. Fatigue is the feeling tired all the time. Researchers want to learn more about how TBI and fatigue are related. Objective: To better understand fatigue after TBI in active duty military and veterans. Eligibility: Active duty service members or veterans ages 25-40 who have sustained at least 1 TBI more than 6 months but less than 5 years ago Design: Participants will be screened with: - Medical history - Physical exam - Blood and urine tests Participants will have Visit 1 the same day as screening. This will include questionnaires and interviews. These will be about their fatigue, quality of life, and health. Participants will wear an activity monitor on their wrist and complete a sleep diary for 7 days at home. Participants will have Visit 2: They will stay in the clinic for 2 nights. The visit will include: - Tests of memory, attention, and thinking - Placement of intravenous (IV) line: A needle will guide a thin plastic tube into the participant s arm vein. - 2 overnight sleeps tests: Participants brain waves will be recorded while they sleep. Small electrodes will be placed on the scalp. Monitors will be placed on the skin. These will measure breathing, heart rate, and movement. Blood will be drawn overnight through the IV line. - Optional hydrocortisone stimulation test: Participants will receive the hormone through the IV line. Blood will be drawn through the IV line 5 times over 1 hour. - Optional MRI: Participants will lie in a machine. This machine is a metal cylinder that takes pictures of the brain.
The objective of the proposed research is to evaluate adult subjects currently taking phytocannabinoid Hemp-derived botanical supplements (HDS) during recovery from traumatic brain injury. This study seeks to answer whether subjects taking HDS formulations experience relief from self-reported symptoms or improved subjective well-being, sleep quality, cognitive benefits, side effects and/or quantifiable changes in brain state neuronal activity or stress biomarkers. We seek to answer whether regular users (once/week to multiple uses/day) of HDS experience signs of dependence, addiction or physiological withdrawal. To accomplish this we will use survey questions, quantitative EEG, cognitive testing and salivary biomarkers to determine the effectiveness of self-initiated HDS administration. In addition, we are interested in whether our objective measures allow us to understand why some people are responders to HDS health benefits while others are not.
Severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of mortality and severe disability in the pediatric population. The prognosis of these patients depends on the severity of the initial lesions but also on the effectiveness of the therapies used to prevent or at least limit secondary lesions mainly intracranial hypertension (HTIC). The medical therapeutic strategy for the control of HTIC in children with TBI is well codified: starting with hyperosmolar therapy, then hyperventilation and ultimately the use of barbiturates to deepen sedation. However, these therapies are not devoid of adverse effects (hypernatremia, cerebral hypoxemia, systemic vasodilation) and, for some, their efficacy is diminished over time. When these treatments are insufficient to lower intracranial pressure (ICP), decompressive craniectomy is proposed. Decompressive craniectomy is used in a well-coded manner in malignant ischemic stroke in adults. In TBI, to date, there are two randomized studies in adults and one in children but with a small number of patients, evaluating the benefit of decompressive craniectomy. None of them showed significantly superiority of the surgery compared to the maximal medication treatment on the functional prognosis in the medium term. However, these studies have many biases, including a significant cross-over from the conservative treatment group to the surgery arm. Nevertheless, the pediatric literature on the subject seems to yield better results on neurological prognosis in the long term. There are guidelines on the medical management of childhood TBI published by the National Institute of Health in 2012, which emphasize the need for controlled and randomized studies to define the place of decompressive craniectomy in children. That is why the investigators are proposing this national multicentre study.
Current standard of care prior to determination of brain death in subjects with suspected anoxic brain injury is to exclude complicating medical conditions that may confound clinical assessment (such as severe electrolyte, acid base, endocrine or circulatory disturbance), achieve normothermia and normal systolic blood pressure over 100 mmHg (with or without vasopressor use), exclude the presence of neuromuscular blocking agents (with the presence of a train of 4 twitches with maximal ulnar nerve stimulation) as well as to exclude the presence of CNS depressant drug effects. At the present time the latter is done by history, drug screen and allowing enough time for paralytic and sedative drugs to be metabolized and cleared from the body. Clearance is calculated by using 5 times the drug's half-life assuming normal hepatic and renal functions. Half-life can also be prolonged in subjects who have been treated with induced hypothermia. Literature search revealed articles with general guidelines and approaches to brain death, but none addressed pharmacological reversal of sedative drugs
Pulsed Electromagnetic Field (PEMF) Reduction of CSF and Serum Biomarkers After Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). The primary objective of this pilot study is to determine whether PEMF treatment (PEMF+) reduces the magnitude and duration of the increase in CSF and blood biomarkers after traumatic brain injury (TBI) compared to a PEMF untreated (PEMF-) group. Values in both groups are compared to uninjured brain CSF and blood biomarker levels obtained from hydrocephalus patients undergoing ventriculo-peritoneal shunt placement. A secondary objective of this pilot study is to determine whether PEMF treatment improves the physiologic status of the brain as evaluated by brain tissue monitors of thermal dilution cerebral blood flow (CBF), intracranial pressure (ICP), and tissue PO2 (PbtO2). Improved physiologic status would be reflected by increased CBF, PbtO2, and reduced ICP. Improved physiologic status may also be inferred from derived variables reflecting improved cerebrovascular and intracranial pressure autoregulation. A tertiary objective of this pilot study is to obtain preliminary data on the relationship between the time course and magnitude of post-TBI CSF and blood biomarker levels as they relate to three month outcome by Glasgow outcome score extended (GOSE) and modified Rankin Score (mRS).