Quantitative Evaluation of Visual and Auditory Dysfunction and Multi-Sensory Integration in Complex TBI Patients
Abstract
The majority of moderate and mild TBI (mTBI) patients report self-described visual and/or auditory (i.e. sensory) dysfunction and yet they often pass standard eye and hearing exams. Further, 80% of TBI patients are diagnosed as mTBI and appear normal on a standard CT or MRI scan. The lack of an objective quantitative clinical metric for these changes in sensory function also prevents the initiation of clinical trials. Further, it highlights the lack of understanding of the underlying cause of the sensory dysfunction. Without an understanding of mechanism, rational therapies cannot be developed. The goals of this study are to identify sensitive, objective, quantitative tests to serve as diagnostics and outcome measures for sensory dysfunction in TBI patients and to better understand the physiological basis of sensory dysfunction. We propose to assess TBI patients from a Level 1 Trauma Center, two Veterans Administration Hospitals, and a military base that houses a satellite of the National Intrepid Center of Excellence. We hypothesize that combining objective structural and functional assessments in the same subjects is more likely to overcome the inherent variability of trauma and yield useful diagnostic metrics than would each test separately. Thus, we propose that a combination of assessments including a single metric that indexes integrative sensory abilities, and utilization of new, sensitive algorithms may be required for accurate diagnosis.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1096165
Entities
People
- Tonia S. Rex
Organizations
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center