Articles: traumatic-brain-injuries.
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Clin. Exp. Pharmacol. Physiol. · Feb 2014
Neuroprotective effects of ebselen in traumatic brain injury model: involvement of nitric oxide and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase signalling pathway.
Previous investigations have found that ebselen is able to treat neurodegenerative diseases caused by radical and acute total cerebral ischaemia. The aim of the present study was to investigate the neuroprotective effects of ebselen in a traumatic brain injury (TBI) model. Ninety Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into five groups (n = 18 in each): (i) sham operation; (ii) an injury model group; (iii) low-dose (3 mg/kg) ebselen-treated group; (iv) a moderate-dose (10 mg/kg) ebselen-treated group; and (v) a high-dose (30 mg/kg) ebselen-treated group. ⋯ Moreover, ebselen significantly reduced the NO and iNOS mRNA levels and inhibited TLR4 and p-p38 MAPK expression, indicating the involvement of NO and p38 MAPK signalling pathways in the neuroprotection afforded by ebselen. In conclusion, ebselen ameliorated neurological injury, possibly by reducing NO levels and modulating the TLR4-mediated p38 MAPK signalling pathway. Therefore, ebselen may have potential to treat secondary injuries of TBI.
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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is characterized by neuronal damage and commonly, secondary cell death, leading to functional and neurological dysfunction. Despite the recent focus of TBI research on developing therapies, affective therapeutic strategies targeting neuronal death associated with TBI remain underexplored. This study explored the efficacy of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) as an intervention for improving cognitive deficits commonly associated with TBI. ⋯ The Morris Water Maze test was used to measure any treatment-associated changes in cognitive deficits observed in TBI animals at days 2-6 post-injury. Our findings demonstrate a significant improvement in cognitive performance in the G-CSF treated TBI animals within a week of injury, compared to untreated TBI, indicative of immediate and beneficial effect of G-CSF on cognitive performance post CHI. Our model suggests that early G-CSF exposure may be a promising therapeutic approach in recovery of cognitive deficits due to TBI.
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Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg · Feb 2014
The impact of body mass index on treatment outcomes among traumatic brain injury patients in intensive care units.
Obesity is a risk factor in treatment outcomes of critically ill patients. This study was conducted to determine the impact of obesity on the likelihood of recovery from traumatic brain injury (TBI) in intensive care unit (ICU) patients. ⋯ Obesity was associated with increased ICU mortality and prolonged dependency on mechanical ventilation, ILOS, and HLOS in patients with TBI. However, further prospective studies with larger sample sizes are needed to substantiate these findings.
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When a severe traumatic brain-injured patient arrives to hospital, fear of failure and definite opinions about the outcome modify early care and provoke self-fulfilling prophecies. It is obvious that working on prognosis is not only useful to inform relatives but also permits to maintain a high level of care, key for a better outcome. Mortality is high (40-50%) if deaths in the first days are not excluded. ⋯ Studies with complex statistical methodology give a good estimated probability of bad outcome but must be confirmed by more validation studies. Progress will come from a better understanding of physiopathology. Focuses on processing chain, rapid multi-monitoring, biomarkers, and investigations in MRI and TDI will help to establish opportunities for treatments and to determine limits.
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Transcranial magnetic stimulations (TMS) have been used for many years as a diagnostic tool to explore changes in cortical excitability, and more recently as a tool for therapeutic neuromodulation. We are interested in their applications following brain injury: stroke, traumatic and anoxic brain injury. ⋯ TMS is a useful non-invasive brain stimulation tool to diagnose the effects of brain injury, to study the mechanisms of recovery and a non-invasive neuromodulation promising tool to influence the post-lesional recovery.