Microwave Imaging in NeuroTrauma (MINT)

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Microwave Imaging in NeuroTrauma (MINT) – a study investigating whether microwave-based scanning technology can detect an intra-cranial bleed in adult head injury patients within the emergency department

• IRAS ID

  223018

• Contact name

  Malcolm Tunnicliff

• Contact email

  malcolm.tunnicliff@nhs.net

• Sponsor organisation

  King's College Hospital NHS Trust

• Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

  NCT05960279

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 11 months, 30 days

• Research summary

  Traumatic brain injury (TBI) accounts for 1.4million attendances to the emergency department (ED) in the United Kingdom (UK) annually, of which 90% are reported as Mild. However, intracranial bleeding can be found in as many as 10% of mild cases and rises with moderate (20%) and severe (30%)

  Detection of bleeding in the head is a challenge for ambulance services, no accurate equipment to detect a bleed in the head is currently available to ambulance crews. A third of major trauma patients are under-triaged and as many as 80% of these patients have a TBI which require surgery. This is likely to be linked to poor patient outcomes.
  
  Current devices available to ambulance crews are unreliable. The technology is either not capable of penetrating the head deep enough to detect all types of bleeds or they have a poor level of accuracy, over-triaging patients.

  Microwave technology has demonstrated 100% accuracy in detecting bleeds within the head in small clinical trials with consenting, non-time critical patients. Larger trials are required to further test these novel devices to ensure it is fit for purpose for ambulance crews treating time-critical TBI patients.

  The aim of this study is to investigate whether microwave-based technology can detect a bleed in a time-critical patient following a traumatic head injury. The study will be conducted in two major trauma centres and last for 2 years.

• REC name

  South Central - Berkshire Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  20/SC/0332

• Date of REC Opinion

  24 Sep 2020

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion