Bedside head ultrasound to spot brain injury in children

AI summary

From the trial's eligibility criteria. Machine-read from the registry text on this page, so it can be wrong. The registry text below and the trial team decide who can take part.

The trial is looking for children aged 2 to 17 who are having a head CT scan for a suspected sudden brain injury at one children's hospital. A bedside head ultrasound is done as well.

Age

2 to 17 years

Sex

All sexes can join.

Disease stage

Suspected sudden brain injury needing a head CT, for example after trauma, with a seizure, altered mental status, a focal deficit, after cardiac arrest, or with a brain infection.

Main reasons for not taking part

• Open skull fracture
• Earlier removal of part of the skull (hemicraniectomy)
• Skull surgery defect at the spot where the ultrasound is placed
• Expected move to comfort-only care
• Ultrasound would delay a time-critical treatment

The registry criteria, word for word

Check if you might fit

Answer for yourself. This is not a decision: only the study team can say whether you can take part.

• Are you between 2 and 17 years old?YesNo

What the trial wants to find out

Acute brain injury (ABI) is a leading cause of death and long-term disability in children. Diagnosis depends on fast neuroimaging, and head computed tomography (CT) is the bedside reference standard despite exposing the developing brain to ionizing radiation. A safe, portable, radiation-free bedside tool is needed to help decide which children need a head CT, to speed CT when injury is present, and to safely monitor injured children between scans. This study evaluates B-mode cranial point-of-care ultrasound (cPOCUS) performed through the temporal (and frontal) bone windows in children undergoing a clinically indicated head CT in the pediatric emergency department (ED) and pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Children's thin skulls provide adequate acoustic windows in more than 95% of cases. cPOCUS is acquired by trained research scanners within 6 hours of head CT and interpreted offline by two blinded expert readers; the radiology CT report is the diagnostic gold standard. This is a prospective observational study; cPOCUS results are not returned to the clinical team in real time and do not change clinical care.

The group in the trial

• Children undergoing clinically indicated head CT for suspected ABI in the pediatric ED and PICU

  Combined ED + PICU sampling enriches for CT-positive cases and supplies the serial-imaging subset.