The National Center for Testing Treatments in Chronic Spinal Cord and Traumatic Brain Injury

Launched by THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER, HOUSTON · May 10, 2016

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

The National Center for Testing Treatments in Chronic Spinal Cord and Traumatic Brain Injury (NCTT) is a large, ongoing research network led by UT Health Houston. It follows adults with long-term spinal cord injuries and/or traumatic brain injuries to learn more about how these injuries affect daily life, health problems that come with them, and what researchers might study next. This is an observational study, not a test of a specific treatment. Researchers will gather information about injury details, function, and other health issues, and they will store blood, urine, and saliva samples for future research. The study plans to enroll about 5,000 people over about five years and will use a patient registry to help connect people with future interventional studies.

Who can join: adults age 18 or older with a history of spinal cord injury and/or traumatic brain injury, who can share medical records and imaging and give informed consent. Exclusions include a life expectancy of less than six months, being in a vegetative state, other conditions that would interfere with diagnosing the injury, or inability/unwillingness to consent. Family members and healthy volunteers can also participate as comparison groups. Data will be shared among participating centers but not freely available to outside researchers. The main goal is to better understand functional outcomes after injury and to support future research, including potential interventional studies. The study is based in Houston at UTHealth.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • History of spinal cord injury and/or brain injury
• • Able to provide HIPAA authorization to share prior medical records/imaging
• • Age 18 and older.
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • Life expectancy less than 6 months, vegetative state or co-existing disease or other characteristic that precludes appropriate diagnosis of spinal cord or brain injury.
• • Other condition that, in the opinion of the site investigator, would interfere with adherence to study requirements.
• • Inability or unwillingness of subject or legal guardian/representative to give informed consent (e.g., ward of the state).