Brain-based Prediction of the Dying Duration in Humans After Withdrawal of Life Sustaining Therapies to Inform Donation After Circulatory Death (NeuroDCD)

The purpose of this study is to develop a new tool that uses information collected before life-sustaining treatments are withdrawn to better predict whether a patient will die within the time needed for organ donation to be possible. The tool created should help improve planning for organ donation and provide families and healthcare teams with more accurate information.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Organ Donation After Circulatory Death

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Estimated): 102

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Rebecca Grey Clinical Research Coordinator; Phone Number: 68336 604-875-4111; Email: cerebri.research@ubc.ca

Study Locations

• Canada
  • Vancouver, Canada
    • St Paul Hospital
    • Contact: John Boyd, MD; Phone Number: 63047 604-682-2344; Email: john.boyd@hli.ubc.ca
    • Principal Investigator: Boyd John, MD
  • Alberta
    • Calgary, Alberta, Canada
      • Cumming School of Medicine
      • Contact: Julie Kromm, MD; Phone Number: 403.944.2334; Email: julie.kromm@ucalgary.ca
  • British Columbia
    • Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada
      • UBC/East Kootenay Regional Hospital
      • Principal Investigator: Denise Jaworsky, MD
      • Contact: Denise Jaworsky, MD; Phone Number: 250-615-5088; Email: denise.jaworsky@ubc.ca
    • Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
      • Kelowna General Hospital
      • Contact: Benjamin Wierstra, MD; Phone Number: 250-862-4000; Email: bt.wierstra@me.com
      • Principal Investigator: Benjamin Wierstra, MD
    • New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
      • Royal Columbian Hospital
      • Contact: Andrew Wormsbecker, MD; Phone Number: 604-520-4253; Email: Andrew.wormsbecker@fraserhealth.ca
      • Principal Investigator: Andrew Wormsbecker, MD
    • Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
      • Surrey Memorial Hospital
      • Principal Investigator: Anish Mitra, MD
      • Contact: Anish Mitra, MD; Phone Number: (604) 581-2211; Email: anish.mitra@fraserhealth.ca
    • Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V5Z1M9
      • Vancouver General Hospital
      • Contact: Mypinder Sekhon, MD, PhD; Phone Number: 604-875-5949; Email: myp@mail.ubc.ca
      • Principal Investigator: Mypinder Sekhon, MD, PhD
  • Manitoba
    • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
      • University of Manitoba Health Sciences Center
      • Contact: Gloria Vazquez-Grande, MD; Phone Number: +1 800-432-1960; Email: Gloria.Vazquez-Grande@umanitoba.ca
  • Ontario
    • London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 3K7
      • University Hospital - London Health Sciences Centre
      • Contact: Marat Slessarev, MD; Phone Number: 519-685-8500; Email: marat.slessarev@lhsc.on.ca
    • Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, L1G 8A2
      • Lakeridge Health
      • Principal Investigator: Shannon Fernando, MD
      • Contact: Shannon Fernando, MD; Phone Number: 6335 (613) 549-6666; Email: sfernando@lh.ca
    • Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
      • Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO)
      • Contact: Sonny Dhanani, MD; Phone Number: 3670 613-737-7600; Email: sdhanani@cheo.on.ca613-737-7600
      • Principal Investigator: Sonny Dhanani, MD

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

ICU

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Age ≥ 19;
2. Eligible for DCD

Exclusion Criteria:

Exclusion criteria will consist of :

1. concurrent vasopressor doses of norepinephrine >0.05 mcg/kg/min (or dose equivalent)
2. PaO2/FiO2 ratio <150 mmHg
3. complete high cervical spinal cord injury (C5 and above)
4. cardiac support devices (e.g., ECMO, balloon pump, ventricular assist device)
5. pacemaker in situ
6. tracheostomy

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

1

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
The study cohort will consist of patients eligible for donation after circulatory determination of

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
To develop a clinically applicable model to predict dying duration in a cohort of patient eligible for donation after circulatory death	Specifically, we aim at assessing the predictive ability of blood-based brain biomarkers, optic nerve sheet diameter as measured by head computed tomography (CT) scans as a surrogate of intracranial pressure and autonomic dysfunction as reflected by abnormal heart rate variability (HRV) to predict the dying duration.	The models will be built to predict death within 30, 60 and 120 minutes

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Comparison of the brain-to-heart model to existing models	Our secondary aim will be to compare the created models with available models (e.g., DCD-N, UNOS, Wisconsin) and to physician gestalt	The models will be compared for death within 30, 60 and 120 minutes

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of British Columbia
• Collaborators: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): January 1, 2027
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 1, 2030
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 1, 2030

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 7, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 7, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): July 13, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 13, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 7, 2026
• Last Verified: January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: DCD; Predicting organ donation after circulatory death
• Other Study ID Numbers: H25-03465

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: Data will be avaiable to be shared on demand. However, statistical analysis and prediction modeling computer code will be made publicly available on GitHub.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No