Important Announcements

Nondiscrimination Statement Update

Boston Medical Center Health System complies with applicable Federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, national origin (including limited English proficiency and primary language), religion, culture, physical or mental disabilities, socioeconomic status, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity and/or expression. BMCHS provides free aids and services to people with disabilities and free language services to people whose primary language is not English.

To see our full nondiscrimination statement, click here.

Campus Construction Update

Starting September 14, we’re closing the Menino building lobby entrance. This, along with the ongoing Yawkey building entrance closure, will help us bring you an even better campus experience that matches the exceptional care you've come to expect. Please enter the Menino and Yawkey buildings through the Moakley building, and make sure to leave extra time to get to your appointment. Thank you for your patience. 

Click here to learn more about our campus redesign. 

NICP

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NICP: Non-invasive Intracranial Pressure Monitoring

Sponsor: Philips Healthcare

Principal Investigator at BMC: James Holsapple, MD

Primary Research Contact: Brandon Finn, BA (617-638-8650)

Summary

Intracranial pressure (ICP) is an important "cranial vital sign" to track a variety of conditions affecting the brain and cerebrovascular space. ICP measurement, however, requires surgical penetration of the skull and placement of a pressure-sensitive probe in the brain parenchyma, or insertion of a catheter into the ventricular or extra-ventricular cerebrospinal fluid spaces. This invasiveness and the associated risks cause ICP measurements in current clinical practice to only be made in a small subset of patients whose diagnosis and treatment could benefit from knowing ICP. The overall goal of this study is to assess the feasibility of a noninvasive approach in 210 patients to patient-specific determination and monitoring of ICP in a variety of conditions in which invasive ICP monitoring is currently clinically mandated. 

 

Enrollment Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Age 18 years and older
  2. Patients admitted to the BU intensive care units with critical injuries to their nervous system for a variety of reasons
  3. Patients with an ICP measurement device in place (ventricular catheter or parenchymal probe or lumbar puncture needle or lumbar drain), or the clinical plan is to place the ICP device during the current hospital admission

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Patients for whom no Legally Authorized Representative (LAR) consent can be obtained or patients that cannot consent for themselves
  2. BU undergraduates
  3. BUMC students
  4. BU/BMC personnel
  5. Pregnant women
  6. Wards of the State
  7. Prisoners
  8. Terminally ill patients
  9. Women of childbearing potential
  10. Emergency department patients

Status: Actively enrolling patients