Articles: traumatic-brain-injuries.
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Neurological research · Feb 2016
S100B and Neuron-Specific Enolase as mortality predictors in patients with severe traumatic brain injury.
To determine temporal profile and prognostic ability of S100B protein and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) for prediction of short/long-term mortality in patients suffering from severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI). ⋯ S100B protein showed higher prognostic capacity than NSE to predict short/long-term mortality in sTBI patients.
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With increased concussion awareness and significantly increased numbers of emergency department (ED) visits for pediatric concussion, a seamless process of managing a patient with a concussion can begin in the ED. ⋯ This article demonstrates the effectiveness of the Remove-Reduce/Educate/Adjust-Accommodate/Pace (REAP) concussion management program in the evaluation, management, and return to play of an acutely concussed pediatric patient. The REAP program was developed in Colorado and promotes a multidisciplinary team approach to concussion management. The team consists of parents, teachers, athletic personnel, and clinicians. The patient described in this case report had concussion management initiated in the ED. He was able to successfully return to sports, having recovered from his concussion with the guidance of the Center for Concussion (Centennial, Colorado) staff utilizing the REAP model of care and the currently recommended graduated return-to-play process. WHY SHOULD AN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN BE AWARE OF THIS?: Busy EDs are often the initial point of contact for school-aged patients with concussion. We present a program that we believe represents a good model of patient care with concussion management implemented in the ED and carried through to clearance of the patient.
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Monitoring the partial pressure of oxygen in brain tissue (PbtO2) is an important tool for traumatic brain injury (TBI) but is invasive and inconvenient for real time monitoring. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), which can monitor hemoglobin parameters in the brain tissue, has been used widely as a noninvasive tool for assessing cerebral ischemia and hypoxia. Therefore, it may have the potential as a noninvasive tool for estimating the change of PbtO2. In this study, a novel wireless NIRS system was designed to monitor hemoglobin parameters of rat brains under different impact strengths and was used to estimate the change of PbtO2 noninvasively in TBI. ⋯ Changes in HbO2 under TBI was highly and positively correlated with changes in PbtO2. By using the relative changes in HbO2 as a reference parameter, the proposed wireless NIRS system may be developed as a noninvasive tool for estimating the change of PbtO2 in brain tissue after TBI.
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Reporting the outcome of two patients who underwent unilateral ablative stereotactic surgery to treat pharmacologic resistant posttraumatic tremor (PTT). ⋯ Radiofrequency lesion of the cZi/VOP target was effective for posttraumatic tremor in both cases. The use of T2-weighted images and MER was found helpful in increasing the precision and safety of the procedure, because it leads the RF probe by relying on neighbor structures based on thalamus and subthalamic nucleus.
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We investigated the effects of hyperbaric oxygen treatment on the Nrf2 signaling pathway in secondary injury following traumatic brain injury, using a rat model. An improved Feeney freefall method was used to establish the rat traumatic brain injury model. Sixty rats were randomly divided into three groups: a sham surgery group, a traumatic brain injury group, and a group receiving hyperbaric oxygen treatment after traumatic brain injury. ⋯ Hyperbaric oxygen treatment significantly increased the expression of nuclear Nrf2 protein (P < 0.05), HO-1, and NQO-1 in the brain tissues surrounding the lesion after a traumatic brain injury (P < 0.05) and also significantly reduced the number of apoptotic and injured nerve cells. The neurological function scores also improved with hyperbaric oxygen treatment (P < 0.05). Therefore, hyperbaric oxygen has a neuroprotective role in traumatic brain injury, which is mediated by up-regulation of the Nrf2 signaling pathway.