A Non-invasive Intracranial Pressure (nICP) Monitoring System

November 18, 2022 updated by: Crainio Ltda

A Pilot Study to Estimate Intracranial Pressure Noninvasively in Traumatic Brain Injury Patients

Researchers have developed a probe that contains infrared light sources that can illuminate the deep brain tissue of the frontal lobe. Photodetectors in the probe detect the backscattered light, which is modulated by pulsation of the cerebral arteries. Changes in the extramural arterial pressure affect the morphology of the recorded optical pulse, so analysis of the acquired signal using an appropriate algorithm could enable the calculation of the intracranial pressure noninvasively (nICP), which would be displayed to clinicians continuously.

This pilot study is the first evaluation of the device in patients in who the gold standard comparator of invasive ICP was available. The acquisition of pulsatile optical signals was performed for up to 48 hours in each of the 40 patients who were undergoing invasive ICP monitoring as part of their normal medical treatment.

Features of the optical signals would be analysed offline. A machine vector support algorithm would be implemented, with the aim of estimating ICP noninvasively and compared to the gold standard of synchronously acquired invasive ICP data.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the most common cause of death and disability in the under 40 age group both in the United Kingdom and worldwide, and prevalence is increasing. The mainstay of severe TBI management is intracranial pressure (ICP) measurement. ICP is defined as the pressure within the skull and brain. TBI often causes a rise in ICP as the brain swells within the rigid skull and therapy is directed at keeping this pressure at an acceptable level with medications or surgery. Very high ICP may lead to further brain damage resulting in increased disability or death.

Existing techniques to measure ICP involve placing an electrical sensor into the brain tissue through a small hole drilled in the skull. This procedure risks infection and bleeding into the brain and can only be performed by a neurosurgeon. Therefore, there is a vital demand to develop non-invasive technologies that will allow measuring the ICP without inserting a sensor in the brain. This technology will decrease the risks, permit monitoring outside the hospital (eg in an ambulance) and reduce the costs. It will also increase the indication for ICP monitoring to include other conditions (e.g. stroke or brain tumours) which are not currently monitored.

The proposed non-invasive ICP (nICP) monitor works by shining a harmless light into the brain through the skull. The developed sensor was attached to the skin of the forehead and recorded optical signals (known as photoplethysmography (PPG)) from the brain, which are related to changes in the ICP. This pilot aims to build the first clinical database of nICP signals in intensive care patients. The acquisition of an extensive set of signals would allow the generation of advanced algorithms and Machine Learning (ML) models utilising optical signal feature extraction techniques. The resulting model will be implemented in translating the optical signals into absolute measurements of ICP.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

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 Locations

    • England
      • London, England, United Kingdom, E1 1BB
        • Royal London Hospital

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

16 years and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patient admitted to the Royal London Hospital who is having invasive ICP monitoring as part of their normal medical care
  • Subject is able to understand the risks and potential benefits of participating in the study and is willing to provide written informed consent. If the patient is unconscious, and a consultee is not available then a professional consultee (a doctor looking after the patient who is not involved in the trial) will assent to inclusion in the trial and non-invasive ICP monitoring will be performed.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients with decompressive craniectomy

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: Basic Science
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: TBI-ICP monitoring
Optical signals acquisition from the nICP probe stuck to the patient's forehead
The nICP probe contains infrared light sources that illuminate the deep brain tissue of the frontal lobe. Photodetectors in the probe detect the backscattered light, which is modulated by pulsation of the cerebral arteries.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Machine learning model agreement
Time Frame: 48 hours record per patient
Bland-Altman limits of agreement between the offline estimation of nICP and the invasive ICP measurements
48 hours record per patient

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Machine learning model diagnostic accuracy
Time Frame: 48 hours record per patient
Sensitivity and specificity of the offline nICP estimation to identify ICP values over 20 mmHg
48 hours record per patient

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Christopher Uff, FRCS, Consultant Neurosurgeon (Royal London Hosptial)

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

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)

January 20, 2020

Primary Completion (Actual)

July 20, 2021

Study Completion (Actual)

July 20, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 11, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 18, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

November 30, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

November 30, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 18, 2022

Last Verified

November 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

IPD Plan Description

Only the final results of the nICP safety and accuracy would be published. Any individual participant data would be available to other researchers.

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.

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