Effectiveness of the Dynavision Device to Improve Spatial Awareness After Brain Injury

November 20, 2023 updated by: Teresa Broers, Queen's University

The Effectiveness of the Dynavision D2 to Improve Left Neglect in Adults With Brain Injury: A Randomized Control Trial

The purpose of this research is to determine the effectiveness of using the Dynavision D2 to improve left neglect in adults with brain injury, and improve performance of ADLs/IADLs. This study will use a randomized control trial at Providence Care Hospital in Kingston Ontario, with clients admitted to the Stroke and ABI services who have been identified through the Catherine Bergego Scale (CBS) as having moderate to severe left neglect. Individuals will be randomly assigned to the control arm, where they will get the usual 60 minutes of OT treatment daily or the intervention arm, which is 30 minutes of their usual OT treatment and a 30 minute session of the Dynavision for 10 sessions for short stay inpatients (~ 3 weeks) and 20 sessions for clients with longer 5-6 week stay. The CBS will be used to measure change in neglect severity at three time points: baseline, following 10 sessions and following 20 sessions, for those that stay for longer.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This study will be a randomized control trial that will take place at Providence Care Hospital in Kingston, Ontario. Eligibility screening will be completed by the OT and written consent will be in person prior to randomization. Individuals will be able to decline participation without impact upon their usual treatment and will be able to withdraw at any time, even if they originally consented to be included. Stratified block randomization will take place, stratified by moderate and severe neglect, to ensure there are equal numbers of moderate and severe in each study arm, given that this pilot study will have a small sample size. The study IDs will be blindly assigned to intervention (Dynavision sessions) and control (usual OT therapy) groups. The study ID information with the respective group allocation will be coordinated by the primary investigator. Treating Occupational Therapists and OT Assistants will carry out the interventions, as per the group allocations.

Participants will be included into the study based on results from the Catherine Bergego Scale (CBS), via the Kessler Foundation Neglect Assessment Process (KF-NAP). This tool will be administered to individuals within the first 3 workdays following admission. Any client who scores moderate or severe on the CBS will be considered for inclusion into the study. Two additional sub tests from the Behavioural Inattention Test (BIT), namely the Star Cancellation Test and the Letter Cancellation Test will also be used in individuals identified by the CBS to have moderate to severe neglect. The sub-tests from the BIT are crucial to offer a secondary measure of peri-personal inattention, and offers qualitative information regarding if clients are using an efficient left-right strategy to cancel targets or a more inefficient right-left, up-down, or random strategies. Together, the measures will qualify and quantify the degree of impairment pre- and post-intervention.

Individuals will be randomly assigned to the control arm, where they will get usual OT treatment for 60 minutes or the intervention arm that will include a defined treatment period using the Dynavision. Participants assigned to the intervention arm will have 30 minutes of their usual OT treatment session, in addition to a 30-minute session of the Dynavision. It is important for the Dynavision session to not be a session over and above their usual one hour of therapy, as the study aims to determine the utility of the Dynavision to improve neglect, rather than testing increased therapy time in general. Individuals in the control arm will use the Dynavision once per week for only 10-15 minutes - 5 rounds of 2 or 3 minutes, which is similar to what clients have been receiving since we acquired the Dynavision.

For the intervention arm, use of the Dynavision will be comprised of six 3-minute or nine 2-minute sessions with 30 seconds to one-minute rest in between. All Dynavision sessions require clients to scan the 4' by 4' vertical board and hit the lit targets one at a time. Participants will be able to depress targets with their left or right hand, in standing or sitting. There are several programs that can be used to ensure participants stay interested and engaged, and all will require scanning left and right and back to the left. They will receive education about visual scanning, and encouragement to use a "left-right" strategy or, if needed, a "lawn mower" strategy, to help them to scan left. Testing will take place at three points: three-four days after admission will be the baseline score for all clients, at three weeks, following 10 sessions of the Dynavision, and finally at 5-6 weeks, after 20 sessions of the Dynavision. This means all patients will be tested at 10 weeks, and the longer stay patients will have an additional test score at 20 weeks.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

40

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

    • Ontario
      • Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L 4X3
        • Recruiting
        • Providence Care Hospital
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

14 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Inpatient on stroke or acute brain injury service
  • Medically stable
  • Moderate-to-severe neglect, as determined by the Catherine Bergego Scale
  • Motivated to participate in daily therapy
  • Can physically and cognitively tolerate up to three hours of daily therapy from Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, and Speech Therapy

Exclusion Criteria:

  • N/A

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Repetitive Visual Scanning Training
Participants will receive 30 minutes of their usual occupational therapy treatment and a 30 minute session of the Dynavision for 10 sessions for short stay inpatients (~ 3 weeks) and 20 sessions for clients with longer 5-6 week stay.
Use of the Dynavision will be comprised of six 3-minute or nine 2-minute sessions with 30 seconds to one-minute rest in between. All Dynavision sessions require clients to scan the 4' by 4' vertical board and hit the lit targets one at a time. Participants will be able to depress targets with their left or right hand, in standing or sitting.
No Intervention: Usual Treatment
Participants will receive the standard 60 minutes of occupational therapy treatment.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Mean change from baseline score on Catherine Bergego Scale after 10 therapy sessions
Time Frame: ~3 weeks from baseline
The Catherine Bergego Scale is a standardized tool to detect presence and degree of neglect during observation of everyday life situations. It is a 10-item scale, with each item, scored from 0-3, measuring no neglect up to severe neglect.
~3 weeks from baseline
Mean change from baseline score on Catherine Bergego Scale after 20 therapy sessions
Time Frame: ~5-6 weeks from baseline
The Catherine Bergego Scale is a standardized tool to detect presence and degree of neglect during observation of everyday life situations. It is a 10-item scale, with each item, scored from 0-3, measuring no neglect up to severe neglect.
~5-6 weeks from baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Mean change from baseline score on Star Cancellation Test after 10 therapy sessions
Time Frame: ~3 weeks from baseline
The Star Cancellation test is a sub-test from the Behavioural Inattention Test, which aims to assess the presence and the extent of visual neglect. This test consists of a random array of verbal and non-verbal stimuli. The stimuli are 52 large stars (14 mm), 13 randomly positioned letters and 19 short (3-4 letters) words are interspersed with 56 smaller stars (8mm) which comprise the target stimuli. The patient is instructed to cancel all the small stars.
~3 weeks from baseline
Mean change from baseline score on Star Cancellation Test after 20 therapy sessions
Time Frame: ~5-6 weeks from baseline
The Star Cancellation test is a sub-test from the Behavioural Inattention Test, which aims to assess the presence and the extent of visual neglect. This test consists of a random array of verbal and non-verbal stimuli. The stimuli are 52 large stars (14 mm), 13 randomly positioned letters and 19 short (3-4 letters) words are interspersed with 56 smaller stars (8mm) which comprise the target stimuli. The patient is instructed to cancel all the small stars.
~5-6 weeks from baseline
Mean change from baseline score on Letter Cancellation Test after 10 therapy sessions
Time Frame: ~3 weeks from baseline
The Letter Cancellation test is a sub-test from the Behavioural Inattention Test, which aims to assess the presence and the extent of visual neglect. Paper and pencil test in which patients are required to scan, locate, and cross out designated targets from a background of distractor letters. The test consists of 5 rows of 34 upper case letters presented on a rectangular page. Forty target stimuli are positioned such that each appears in equal number on both sides of the page. Each letter is 6 mm high and positioned 2 mm apart.
~3 weeks from baseline
Mean change from baseline score on Letter Cancellation Test after 20 therapy sessions
Time Frame: ~5-6 weeks from baseline
The Letter Cancellation test is a sub-test from the Behavioural Inattention Test, which aims to assess the presence and the extent of visual neglect. Paper and pencil test in which patients are required to scan, locate, and cross out designated targets from a background of distractor letters. The test consists of 5 rows of 34 upper case letters presented on a rectangular page. Forty target stimuli are positioned such that each appears in equal number on both sides of the page. Each letter is 6 mm high and positioned 2 mm apart.
~5-6 weeks from baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

May 1, 2023

Primary Completion (Estimated)

September 1, 2024

Study Completion (Estimated)

September 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 16, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 16, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

August 18, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

November 22, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 20, 2023

Last Verified

November 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Subscribe