Acute Concussion Management in Emergency Medicine with 7T MRI: ACME-7T

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Acute Concussion Management in Emergency Medicine with 7T MRI (ACME-7T): A Feasibility Study

• IRAS ID

  348525

• Contact name

  W Stewart

• Contact email

  william.stewart@glasgow.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  NHS GGC

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 11 months, 31 days

• Research summary

  Concussion is a common issue. Approximately 1.4 million patients attend Emergency Departments (ED) annually in the UK following head injury, of which 95% have a normal or mildly impaired conscious level at presentation (1). A significant proportion will not have any findings on CT head. This is defined as a mild traumatic brain injury (mildTBI).
  
  Patients who suffer a mildTBI can experience significant and long-lasting symptoms, even if there are no significant findings on CT or clinical MRI scans of their brain. It is difficult to predict who will have severe or long-lasting symptoms following concussion. Advances in imaging techniques have led to the development of ultra-high field (7 Tesla) MRI. These scans can therefore be used to investigate whether there are subtle signs of damage to the brain after a head injury, which have previously been difficult to see on imaging.

  This study seeks to identify patients in the emergency department, aged between 18-40, who have attended hospital within 96 hours of a mildTBI. These patients will be asked to complete follow-up questionnaires (the Post Concussion Symptom Scale and the Neurological Assessment Questionnaire) via telephone/email at 25 +/-3 days after their injury. Patients will be sorted into those who have no concussion symptoms (group 1) or those who have significant concussion symptoms (group 2) based on the answers to their questionnaires.

  10 patients from each group (groups 1 and 2) will then undergo an ultra-high field 7T MRI of their brain at approximately 28 days after their injury. This may help to identify whether there are markers on brain imaging which could be associated with poor recovery from a mildTBI and ongoing symptoms of concussion.
  
  (1) NICE&nbsp. Head injury: assessment and early management. 2023; . Accessed 29/08/, 2024.
  

• REC name

  London - City & East Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  24/PR/1321

• Date of REC Opinion

  31 Oct 2024

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion