Articles: traumatic-brain-injuries.
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Journal of neurotrauma · Jul 2015
Neurologic Functional and Quality of Life Outcomes after TBI: Clinic Attendees Versus Non-Attendees.
This investigation describes the relationship between TBI patient demographics, quality of life outcome, and functional status outcome among clinic attendees and non-attendees. Of adult TBI survivors with intracranial hemorrhage, 63 attended our TBI clinic and 167 did not attend. All were telephone surveyed using the Extended-Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOSE), the Quality of Life after Brain Injury (QOLIBRI) scale, and a post-discharge therapy questionnaire. ⋯ In addition, survivors who received post-discharge rehabilitation had higher QOLIBRI scores by 11.4 points (95% CI: 3.7-19.1) than those who did not. Survivors with private insurance had QOLIBRI scores that were 25.5 points higher (95% CI: 11.3-39.7) than those with workers' compensation and 16.8 points higher (95% CI: 7.4-26.2) than those without insurance. Because neurologic injury severity, insurance status, and receipt of rehabilitation or therapy are independent risk factors for functional and quality of life outcomes, future directions will include improving earlier access to post-TBI rehabilitation, social work services, affordable insurance, and community resources.
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The Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) is a useful means of measuring postural stability, which frequently exhibits deficits after a concussion. However, it has limited applicability for children since there is insufficient normative data available for the BESS in the pediatric population. The purposes of this study were to report scores for the BESS in children 10 to 17 years old with no history of concussion and to identify whether BESS score is correlated with age, sex, sports participation, height, weight, or body mass index. ⋯ These results provide a reference for clinicians using BESS to evaluate and manage children and teens with concussions.
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Venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is used for patients with severe, potentially reversible, respiratory failure unresponsive to conventional management. It is relatively contraindicated in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) due to bleeding complications and use of anticoagulation. We report two cases of TBI patients treated with ECMO.
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Current theory proposes that healthy neural dynamics operate in a metastable regime, where brain regions interact to simultaneously maximize integration and segregation. Metastability may confer important behavioral properties, such as cognitive flexibility. It is increasingly recognized that neural dynamics are constrained by the underlying structural connections between brain regions. ⋯ Furthermore, decreased metastability was associated with reduced cognitive flexibility and information processing. A computational model, defined by empirically derived connectivity data, demonstrates how behaviorally relevant changes in neural dynamics result from structural disconnection. Our findings suggest how metastable dynamics are important for normal brain function and contingent on the structure of the human connectome.
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Neuroscience letters · Jun 2015
Neuroprotective effects of MK-801 against traumatic brain injury in immature rats.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major health problem in pediatric ages and also has major social, economic, and emotional outcomes, with diverse sequelae in many spheres of everyday life. We aimed to investigate the effect of MK-801, a competitive NMDA receptor antagonist, on hippocampal damage and behavioral deficits on 10-day-old rat pups subjected to contusion injury. The aims of the present study were to determine: (i) the short term effects of MK-801 on hippocampal BDNF, NGF and NMDA receptor immunoreactivity and neuron density in hippocampus (ii) long term effects of MK-801 on cognitive dysfunction following TBI in the immature rats. ⋯ Histopathological and immunohistochemical evaluations showed that treatment with a single dose of 1mg/kg MK-801 (i.p.) significantly ameliorated the trauma induced hippocampal neuron loss and decreased BDNF, NGF and NMDAR expressions in CA1, CA3 and DG hippocampal brain regions. Additionally, treatment with MK-801 ameliorated anxiety and hippocampus dependent memory of animals subjected to trauma. These results show that acute treatment of MK-801 has a neuroprotective role against trauma induced hippocampal neuron loss and associated cognitive impairment in immature rats.