Brain pulsation and head injury (version 1)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Brain pulsation and head injury: ultrasound Brain Tissue Velocimetry for emergency assessment of acute brain injury (Brain TV)
IRAS ID
151707
Contact name
Emma Chung
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leicester, College of Medicine, Biological Sciences and Psychology
Research summary
This study tests the feasibility of using Doppler ultrasound to monitor brain swelling and impaired cerebral blood flow in patients with suspected stroke or head injury. Doppler ultrasound is a safe, portable, continuous monitoring technique, which is already used to monitor blood flow through the major arteries, but has not so far been applied to the analysis of brain tissue motion. Our study will investigate the potential for using Doppler ultrasound to sensitively detect and measure pulsations in brain tissue in patients with brain injury. We test the idea that head injuries result in abnormal brain tissue pulsation, which could be used to identify swelling of the brain and regions of tissue with impaired blood-flow. If our measurements confirm that abnormal brain tissue pulsations are associated with brain injury, further development of Doppler ultrasound techniques could prove useful in the emergency assessment and monitoring of patients with suspected stroke or head trauma. This research might lead to an inexpensive, convenient, and reliable method for evaluating and monitoring brain injury in acute stroke, intensive care, and emergency medicine.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/EM/1161
Date of REC Opinion
26 Nov 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion