The Veterans Administration (VA) https://www.va.gov and the Department of Defense (DOD) have launched the “Long-Term Impact of Military-related Brain Injury Consortium” (LIMBIC). The two organizations have pledged to fund up to $50 million to research mild Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) or concussions. Each agency will contribute $25 million depending on the availability of funds.
LIMBIC is composed of researchers and resources available from more than 20 organizations including the VA, DOD, NIH, universities, and nonprofit organizations. The VA and DOD funding will support a consortium led by a team at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).
The Principal Investigator on the grant funding is David X Cifu, MD., Professor and Chair of the VCU School of Medicine’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and Senior Traumatic Brain Injury Specialist for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
DOD, and VA are going to bring together universities, Veterans Health Administration hospitals to include the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center, plus the military’s healthcare facilities to study the impact of combat concussions.
Researchers associated with a previous collaborative effort known as the “Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium” (CENC) now part of LIMBIC, developed an EMR database of more than two million veterans and service members.
Using the data, the researchers documented links between combat concussions and dementia, Parkinson’s disease, chronic pain, opioid usage, and suicide risk. The researchers have developed specialized diagnostic tests by using questionnaires, physical exams, brain imaging, fluid biomarkers, and electrophysiology, to research how the brain recovers from injury.
LIMBIC will continue to study the ongoing health impacts of combat concussions, such as concussions resulting from blasts, bullets, and hand-to hand fighting as well as from vehicle accidents, sports injuries, and falls.
In another research effort to further study TBI treatment, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) https://medschool.umaryland.edu and the University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON), https://nursing.umaryland.edu were awarded a three year $3.5 million grant from the U.S Army and Air Force to study why some TBI patients recover from traumatic brain injuries and others develop organ failure and sepsis.
The study will soon be underway with patients between 18 and 65 admitted to the Shock Trauma Center and diagnosed with TBI. Nurses and the research staff will then select participants for the study. The study aims to identify patients at risk for sepsis using biomarkers that will allow the medical staff to intervene early to prevent sepsis and organ failure.
According to Gary Fiskum, PhD, Professor for Research and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Anesthesiology at UMSOM, “By using the Institute for Genome Sciences, the School of Medicine, and important Clinical Input from the Shock Trauma Center, the study will be stronger and researchers will have much needed information.”