Imaging Characterization of the Biomechanical Coupling of Brain and Skull

Traumatic Brain Injury (Tbi) Clinical Trial

Official title: Imaging Characterization of the Biomechanical Coupling of Brain and Skull: An Observational Study

Status Not yet recruiting

Clinical Trial Summary

Background:

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects over 1.7 million people in the United States each year. Many cases are mild, but people with a history of TBI may have long-term symptoms; they are also known to be more susceptible to future concussions. Researchers are working to understand how TBI affects tissues in and around the brain over the long term. This natural history study will investigate how a TBI may change the stiffness of the brain and its surrounding connective tissues.

Objective:

To see how the brain and connective tissues respond to small head movements in people with and without a prior TBI.

Eligibility:

People aged 21 to 65 years with a history of TBI. People with no history of TBI are also needed.

Design:

Participants will have 1 clinic visit that will last about 4 hours.

Participants will have a physical exam. They answer questions to make sure it is safe for them to have a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of their brain.

They will have an MRI scan in 2 parts.

During the first part, participants will lie on a table that slides into a large tube. They will hear loud knocking noises. They may wear earplugs or earmuffs. They will lie still for 15 minutes at a time. They will be in the tube for about up to 75 minutes.

The second part is called magnetic resonance elastography (MRE). Participants will lie with their head on a pillow that vibrates gently. This test will take 10 minutes.

Participants will answer questions about how they feel 1 or 2 days after the procedure.

Clinical Trial Description

Study Description:

The study will characterize the biomechanical coupling of the brain to the skull in human volunteers with and without a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) using magnetic resonance elastography (MRE). MRE uses the MR scanner to measure the relative motion of brain and skull while the head is vibrated at specified frequencies.

Objectives:

Our objectives are:

1. Apply MRE to characterize the skull-brain interface in 25 mild TBI patients with a history of acute TME (TME+), 25 TME-patients (mild TBI patients without TME) and 25 healthy controls.

2. To determine whether local shear strain measures within the cortex during MRE are altered in TME+ subjects. Up to 10 additional healthy controls will be recruited for technical development of imaging protocols.

Endpoints:

Study endpoints are the completion of the MRE visit for each volunteer. The MRE data will be used to characterize the S-BI using the amplitudes and temporal delays of translation and rotation across the S-BI. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Brain Injuries
• Brain Injuries, Traumatic
• Traumatic Brain Injury (Tbi)

• NCT number: NCT05675423
• Study type: Observational
• Source: National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC)
• Contact: Tracy L Cropper, R.N.
• Phone: (301) 402-6132
• Email: tcropper@cc.nih.gov
• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Start date: June 26, 2024
• Completion date: December 1, 2024