Evidence Based Diagnostics and Treatment Planning Solution for Traumatic Brain Injuries

Evidence Based Diagnostics and Treatment Planning Solution for Traumatic Brain Injuries - the TBIcare Project

Adult patients, age ≥ 18 years, with clinically diagnosed mild, moderate or severe brain trauma will be asked to participate in the study. This prospective database will consist of 400 subjects with TBI, 200 from both TUCH and Cambridge Addenbrooke's Hospital. In addition, 100 controls will be recruited, with 50 from both centres.This study is a prospective clinical observational study with detailed data collecting. All patients will be treated according to the accepted, standardized, existing guidelines that are based on national and international recommendations. New treatment interventions will NOT be evaluated during the data acquisition for this study.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Traumatic Brain Injury

Detailed Description

Aim in this study is to collect large amounts of data in adult subject population, who have suffered mild, moderate or severe brain trauma. This data will be added up to the existing large TBI databases from IMPACT as well as to the retrospective brain trauma data sets collected at the Turku University Hospital after the year 1995 and to the prospectively collected existing data set from the University of Cambridge.

Data will contain patient characteristics, injury mechanisms, and patients' physiological status and findings immediately after the incident as well as through the processes of diagnostics, emergency treatment and in-hospital care. All data during these phases will follow the recommendations of Common Data Elements (advanced version) in TBI studies by the IMPACT investigators.

Immediate head CT will be performed according to the existing guidelines, and head MRI with modern techniques as soon as the patient's wellbeing will allow the imaging to be done.

During the intensive care unit (ICU) visit a database of EEG signals will be collected and the relevant information components will be extracted to provide inputs for the care decision algorithm. The aim is to investigate the feasibility of continuous EEG monitoring on the detection of epileptic seizures and other adverse events to enable rapid intervention during the patient's ICU stay and to improve outcome prediction.

The investigators will also search new metabolomic, lipidomic, and genetic biomarkers related to TBIs through analyzing blood samples drawn in different time points.

Based on all these factors, simulation models will be brought up as to help clinicians determine the earliest possible prognosis and to decide, whether patient would benefit from a particular care during the acute phase of a TBI.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 396

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Finland
  • Turku, Finland, 20520
    • Turku University Hospital
• United Kingdom
  • Cambridge, United Kingdom
    • Cambridge Addenbrooke's Hospital

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Adult patients, age ≥ 18 years, with clinically diagnosed mild, moderate or severe brain trauma will be asked to participate in the study. If such possible subjects are either unconscious, sedated or confused to the extent, that no personal decisions can be drawn, her next of kin will be asked for the permission to include the subject in question to the study. Control group subjects will be patients with acute orthopaedic injuries without any signs of eventual concomitant brain trauma of any degree. The source populations will consist of citizens from the local catchment areas of the participating centres.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Severe or moderate brain trauma subjects with need of ICU care:
• Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) ≤ 8 after the primary stabilization has been performed in the field (= patient not hypoxic or hypotensive) and at least 30 min interval from the moment of injury.
• GCS 9 - 13 and the patient is deteriorating
• The patient has GCS ≤ 13 and has other injuries, which require interventions for hemodynamic or ventilatory incidents
• The patient is in urgent need of neurosurgery (craniotomy, impression skull fracture, severe haemorrhagic contusion, or ICP measurement)

Moderate or mild brain trauma not in need of ICU care:

- All other patients who fulfil the diagnostic criteria for an acute TBI but without any exclusion criteria defined below

Exclusion Criteria:

• Age < 18 years at study entry
• Blast-induced TBI
• Perforating or penetrating mechanism of TBI
• Unable to live independently because of a brain disease (= e.g. people with moderate dementia, Down's syndrome, cerebral palsy etc.) or other medical cause before the injury
• TBIs or suspected TBIs not needing cranial CT imaging (excludes the mildest TBIs with negligible risk for incomplete recovery)

Inclusion criteria for control subjects

• Age ≥ 18 years at study entry
• Acute orthopaedic non-trivial trauma that needs either surgery or conservative measures and clinical follow-up (including mere superficial soft tissue injuries)

Exclusion criteria for control subjects

• Age < 18 years at study entry
• Loss of consciousness or amnesia or neurological symptoms or signs in conjunction with the injury, or suspicion of such
• External injuries of the head caused by the acute injury
• Acute injury of the spinal column and/or cord (including whiplash-injuries of the neck) - superficial soft tissue injuries without neurological symptoms or signs are not an exclusion
• Any earlier TBI with loss of consciousness, amnesia or prolonged symptoms (days or more)
• Suspicion or signs of TBI (recent or remote) in brain MRI
• Trauma that needs care or observation at ICU, at any time point during the acute hospital period
• Previous neurological illnesses with obvious permanent alteration in CNS function (cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, stroke, encephalitis, degenerative CNS disorders, etc.)

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
TBI subjects; Unselected adult patients with acute TBI from the Emergency Departments of the recruiting hospitals
Control subjects; Acute orthopaedic non-trivial trauma that needs either surgery or conservative measures and clinical follow-up (including mere superficial soft tissue injuries)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Glasgow Outcome Scale -extended	•General outcome is assessed using the Glasgow Outcome Scale, extended version (GOS-E)	Time for outcome assessment is nine months (range 3 to 12 months) from the injury.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
QOLIBRI	•The quality of life is assessed using QOLIBRI	3 - 12 months from injury
CANTAB	•Cognitive outcome is assessed using CANTAB, an electronic test battery to evaluate neuropsychological function. The subtests used include tests of visual memory, executive function, working memory, planning, attention, semantic/verbal memory, decision-making, and response control	3 - 12 months from injury
Rivermead Post Concussion Symptom Questionnaire	•Subjective outcome is assessed using the Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptom Questionnaire (RPCSQ)	3 - 12 months from injury
SF-36	•Subjective outcome is assessed using the SF-36 questionnaire	3 - 12 months from injury

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Turku University Hospital
• Collaborators: GE Healthcare; Imperial College London; Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland; Kaunas University of Technology
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Olli Tenovuo, MD, PhD,, Turku University Hospital

Publications and helpful links

Helpful Links

• Web-pages of the project

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: February 1, 2011
• Primary Completion (Actual): April 1, 2014
• Study Completion (Actual): July 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 20, 2013
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 20, 2013
• First Posted (Estimate): December 27, 2013

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): May 27, 2015
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 22, 2015
• Last Verified: May 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: EEG; Brain trauma; injury mechanism; ICP measurement; cranial CT / MRI; Glasgow Coma Score; acute TBI; metabolic, proteomic, and genetic biomarkers of TBIs
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Brain Diseases; Central Nervous System Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Craniocerebral Trauma; Trauma, Nervous System; Brain Injuries; Wounds and Injuries; Brain Injuries, Traumatic
• Other Study ID Numbers: EU funded project nr 270259