Project description:Blunt cerebrovascular injury (BCVI) is a non-penetrating injury to the carotid and/or vertebral artery that may cause stroke in trauma patients. Historically BCVI has been considered rare but more recent publications indicate an overall incidence of 1-2% in the in-hospital trauma population and as high as 9% in patients with severe head injury. The indications for screening, treatment and follow-up of these patients have been controversial for years with few clear recommendations. In an attempt to provide a clinically oriented guideline for the handling of BCVI patients a working committee was created. The current guideline is the end result of this committees work. It is based on a systematic literature search and critical review of all available publications in addition to a standardized consensus process. We recommend using the expanded Denver screening criteria and CT angiography (CTA) for the detection of BCVI. Early antithrombotic treatment should be commenced as soon as considered safe and continued for at least 3 months. A CTA at 7 days to confirm or discard the diagnosis as well as a final imaging control at 3 months should be performed.
Project description:Blunt cardiac injury is a rare trauma entity. Here, we sought to evaluate the relevance and prognostic significance of blunt cardiac injury in severely injured patients.In a retrospective multicentre study, using data collected from 47,580 patients enrolled to TraumaRegister DGU (1993-2009), characteristics of trauma, prehospital / hospital trauma management, and outcome analysis were correlated to the severity of blunt cardiac injury. The severity of cardiac injury was assessed according to the abbreviated injury score (AIS score 1-6), the revised injury severity score (RISC) allowed comparison of expected outcome with injury severity-dependent outcome. N = 1.090 had blunt cardiac trauma (AIS 1-6) (2.3% of patients).Predictors of blunt cardiac injury could be identified. Sternal fractures indicate a high risk of the presence of blunt cardiac injury (AIS 0 [control]: 3.0%; AIS 1: 19.3%; AIS 2-6: 19.1%). The overall mortality rate was 13.9%, minor cardiac injury (AIS 1) and severe cardiac injury (AIS 2-6) are associated with higher rates. Severe blunt cardiac injury (AIS 4 and AIS 5-6) is associated with a higher mortality (OR 2.79 and 4.89, respectively) as compared to the predicted average mortality (OR 2.49) of the study collective.Multiple injured patients with blunt cardiac trauma are at high risk to be underestimated. Careful evaluation of trauma patients is able to predict the presence of blunt cardiac injury. The severity of blunt cardiac injury needs to be stratified according to the AIS score, as the patients' outcome is dependent on the severity of cardiac injury.
Project description:We previously reported that pan-cortical effects occur when cognitive tasks end afterdischarges. For this report, we analyzed wavelet cross-coherence changes during cognitive tasks used to terminate afterdischarges studying multiple time segments and multiple groups of inter-electrode-con distances. We studied 12 patients with intractable epilepsy, with 970 implanted electrode contacts, and 39,871 electrode contact combinations. When cognitive tasks ended afterdischarges, coherence varied similarly across the cortex throughout the tasks, but there were gradations with time, distance, and frequency: (1) They tended to progressively decrease relative to baseline with time and then to increase toward baseline when afterdischarges ended. (2) During most time segments, decreases from baseline were largest for the closest inter-contact distances, moderate for intermediate inter-contact distances, and smallest for the greatest inter-contact distances. With respect to our patients' intractable epilepsy, the changes found suggest that future therapies might treat regions beyond those closest to regions of seizure onset and treat later in a seizure's evolution. Similar considerations might apply to other disorders. Our findings also suggest that cognitive tasks can result in pan-cortical coherence changes that participate in underlying attention, perhaps complementing the better-known regional mechanisms.
Project description:The lack of established diagnostic criteria makes diagnosing blunt cardiac injury difficult. We investigated the factors associated with blunt cardiac injury using the Japan Trauma Data Bank (JTDB) in a multicenter observational study of blunt trauma patients conducted between 2004 and 2018. The primary outcome was the incidence of blunt cardiac/pericardial injury. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors independently associated with blunt cardiac injuries. Of the 228,513 patients, 1002 (0.4%) had blunt cardiac injury. Hypotension on hospital arrival (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 4.536, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.802-5.412), thoracic aortic injury (AOR 2.722, 95% CI 1.947-3.806), pulmonary contusion (AOR 2.532, 95% CI 2.204-2.909), rib fracture (AOR 1.362, 95% CI 1.147-1.618), sternal fracture (AOR 3.319, 95% CI 2.696-4.085). and hemothorax/pneumothorax (AOR 1.689, 95% CI 1.423-2.006)) was positively associated with blunt cardiac injury. Regarding the types of patients, car drivers had a higher rate of blunt cardiac injury compared to other types of patients. Driving a car, hypotension on hospital arrival, thoracic aortic injury, pulmonary contusion, rib fracture, sternal fracture, and hemothorax/pneumothorax were positively associated with blunt cardiac injury.
Project description:Background: There is heterogeneity in neurosensory alterations following mild traumatic brain injury. Commonly assessed neurosensory symptoms following head injury include symptom reports and measures of oculomotor impairment, auditory changes, and vestibular impairment. Hypothesis/Purpose: Neurosensory alterations are prevalent acutely following mild traumatic brain injury secondary to blunt head trauma during collegiate varsity sports and may vary by sex and sport. Study Design: Retrospective study of a large collegiate athletic database. Methods: Analyses were performed using an established single University dataset of 177 male and female collegiate varsity athletes who were diagnosed with concussion/mild traumatic brain injury between September 2013 and October 2019. Descriptive and comparative analyses were performed on individual and grouped acute concussion assessments pertaining to neurosensory alterations obtained within 72 h of injury using components of the Sports Concussion Assessment Tool Version 5 and Vestibular/Ocular-Motor Screening. Results: Females had significantly more abnormal smooth pursuit (p-value: 0.045), convergence (p-value: 0.031), and visual motion sensitivity tests results (p-value: 0.023) than males. There were no differences in neurosensory alterations when grouped by overall auditory, vestibular, or oculomotor impairments. The majority of sports-related concussions occurred during football (50, 28.25%), wrestling (21, 11.86%), water polo (15, 8.47%), and basketball (14, 7.91%). Abnormal vestibular assessments were high in these top four sports categories, but statistically significant differences in overall auditory, vestibular, or oculomotor impairments were not reached by individual sport. However, water polo players had higher abnormal individual assessments related to balance reports on the sideline (60.00%, p-value: 0.045) and in the clinic setting (57.14%, p-value: 0.038) as compared to all other sports. Conclusion: While neurosensory alterations are prevalent in both male and female athletes acutely post-concussion, females have a higher incidence of abnormalities in smooth pursuit, convergence, and visual motion sensitivity and may benefit from early rehabilitation.
Project description:BackgroundBlunt cardiac injury (BCI) has a variety of symptoms that may be a potentially life-threatening injury that can lead to death. Depending on the diagnosis of BCI, treatment direction and length of stay may vary. In addition, the utility of other diagnostic tests for cardiac disease as diagnostic tools for BCI remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the competence of N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT pro-BNP) and cardiac index (C.I) as adjunctive diagnostic tools for BCI.MethodsFrom January 2018 to March 2020, severe trauma patients with sternum fracture who were admitted to the traumatic intensive care unit (TICU) were included this study. Patients with sternum fracture, 18 years of age or older, and with an injury severity score > 16 who required intensive care were included. Invasive measurement for the analysis of the pulse contour for C.I monitoring and intravenous blood sampling for NT pro-BNP measurement were performed. Sampling and 12-lead electrocardiogram were performed at different time points as follows: immediately after TICU admission and at 24 h and 48 h after trauma.ResultsAmong 103; 33 patients with factors that could affect NT pro-BNP were excluded; therefore, 63 patients were included in this study. According to the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Cardiac Injury Scale, 33 patients were diagnosed with non-BCI, and 30 patients constituted with BCI. The median ages of the patients were 58 (52-69), and 60 (45-69) years in the non-BCI and BCI groups, respectively (p = 0.77). The median NT pro-BNP values were higher in the BCI group on admission, hospital day (HD) 2, and HD 3, however, no statistical difference was observed (125 (49-245) vs. 130 (47-428) pg/mL, p = 0.08, 124 (68-224) vs. 187 (55-519) pg/mL, p = 0.09, and 121(59-225) vs. 133 (56-600) pg/mL, p = 0.17, respectively). On the contrary, significantly lower values were observed in the median C.I measurement on admission and HD 3 in the BCI group (3.2 (2.8-3.5) vs. 2.6 (2.3-3.5) L/min/m2, p < 0.01 and 3.2 (3.1-3.9) vs. 2.9 (2.4-3.2) L/min/m2, p < 0.01, respectively); however, no significant difference was observed on HD 2 (3.4 (3.0-3.7) vs. 2.6 (2.4-3.4) L/min/m2, p = 0.17), Furthermore, The median lactate levels in the BCI group upon admission, HD 2, and HD 3 were significantly higher than those in the non-BCI group (1.8 (1.1-2.6) vs. 3.1 (2.1-4.4) mmol/L, p < 0.01; 1.3 (0.8-2.3) vs. 3.0 (2.2-4.7) mmol/L, p < 0.01; and 1.5 (0.9-1.5) vs. 2.2 (1.3-3.7) mmol/L, p < 0.01, respectively).ConclusionConsecutive values of NT pro-BNP and C.I show no correlation with ECG-based BCI diagnosis. However, lactate level measurement may help in the early recognition of BCI as an adjunctive tool. It should be noted that this is a hypothesis-generating study for BCI diagnosis. Further studies should be conducted in larger populations with a prospective approach.