Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury

KIDS-STAT is a prospective study evaluating whether a rapid blood test measuring the brain injury biomarkers GFAP and UCH-L1 using the i-STAT Alinity system can help identify children with mild traumatic brain injury who do not have acute traumatic findings on head CT. The study will include children younger than 18 years who present within 24 hours of a suspected mild traumatic brain injury. Blood will be collected during the emergency department visit and tested using the i-STAT TBI cartridge. The test results will be used for research purposes only and will not be used to make clinical care decisions. The primary objective is to determine how reliably a negative i-STAT TBI result identifies children without traumatic findings on head CT. Secondary analyses will evaluate test performance across age groups and in relation to clinical characteristics and outcomes.

The primary objective of this study is to establish if Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP) and Ubiquitin C-terminal Hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1) are predictive of computed tomography (CT) findings in pediatric traumatic brain injuries (TBI). The participant population is pediatric patients, ages 0 to less than 18 years old with a possible TBI or trauma-related injury who have blood drawn per standard of care in the emergency department. Blood samples will be analyzed using the i-STAT TBI cartridge (Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, IL, USA) by the Emergency Department charge nurse within one hour of collection of the blood sample. Clinical outcomes will be assessed via telephone interview with a parent at 3 and 6 months for all surviving TBI patients.

Acute extradural hematoma (EDH) is a potentially life-threatening neurosurgical emergency in children, commonly resulting from traumatic head injury. Early diagnosis and timely surgical intervention are critical factors influencing neurological recovery and overall outcome. Despite advances in neuroimaging and surgical techniques, the clinical presentation, management strategies, and outcomes of pediatric EDH remain variable