Articles: brain-injuries.
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Knockout in boxing entails deliberate production of the state of unconsciousness. Acute subdural hematoma which is the most common acute brain injury in boxing, accounts for 75% of all acute brain injuries and is the leading cause of boxing fatalities. The aim of this study is to evaluate acute subdural hematoma caused by professional boxing by analyzing the content of bouts, the level of consciousness on admission, CT scan, therapy and outcome 3 months after admission. ⋯ Overall outcome was better than that published in previous reports and also than that observed in other head injuries, for example, traffic accident and fall. The reasons for this could be that the patients were younger, that there was immediate surgical treatment, and that brain injury without cerebral contusion had contributed to better outcome. Finally, the best medical management intervention seems to be to diagnose and treat the lesions as early as possible after occurrence of subdural hematoma.
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We have employed bedside multimodality methods to assess the influence of a slow (20 min) bolus of hypertonic mannitol on cerebral hemodynamics in comatose patients with head injuries. ⋯ Bedside multimodality monitoring may provide a useful means for assessing the effects of therapy in the comatose patient. The mechanisms by which mannitol reduces intracranial pressure in patients with head injuries are discussed.
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Journal of neurochemistry · Oct 1996
mu-calpain activation and calpain-mediated cytoskeletal proteolysis following traumatic brain injury.
Increasing evidence suggests that excessive activation of the calcium-activated neutral protease mu-calpain could play a major role in calcium-mediated neuronal degeneration after acute brain injuries. To further investigate the changes of the in vivo activity of mu-calpain after unilateral cortical impact injury in vivo, the ratio of the 76-kDa activated isoform of mu-calpain to its 80-kDa precursor was measured by western blotting. This mu-calpain activation ratio increased to threefold in the pellet of cortical samples ipsilateral to the injury site at 15 min, 1 h, 3 h, and 6 h after injury and returned to control levels at 24-48 h after injury. ⋯ Although mu-calpain autolysis and cytoskeletal proteolysis occurred concurrently with early morphological alterations, evidence of calpain-mediated proteolysis preceded the full expression of evolutionary histopathological changes. Our results indicate that rapid and persistent mu-calpain activation plays an important role in cortical neuronal degeneration after traumatic brain injury. Our data also suggest that specific inhibitors of calpain could be potential therapeutic agents for the treatment of traumatic brain injury in vivo.
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To identify computed tomographic-detected intracranial hemorrhage (CTIH) risk factors and outcome in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) blunt trauma patients. ⋯ In mild cognitive impairment patients triaged directly to a Level I trauma center, age, arrival GCS score, and cranial soft tissue injury are risk factors for CT-detected intracranial hemorrhage. Neurologic deterioration and death are infrequent. These data strongly suggest that observation and discretionary brain CT imaging are a rational approach for blunt-injury mild cognitive impairment.
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The properties of the endothelium differ between the brain and the remainder of the body. In most non-CNS tissues the size of the junctions between endothelial cells averages 65 A. Proteins do not cross these gaps, while sodium does. ⋯ However, the therapeutic approach to polytraumatized patients with small intravascular volume (4-6 ml/kg) of hypertonic solutions should not be a substitute for the usual volemic resuscitation technique. The clinical indication for these solutions should be limited to the initial resuscitation maneuvers in traumatized patients. Prolonged use of hypertonic solutions for the purpose of intravascular resuscitation would only contribute to increasing the side effects and eventually counteract the initial beneficial advantages.