Memphis, Tennessee news: UC researchers pioneering research to treat 'brain tsunamis'

University of Cincinnati researchers are enrolling patients in a first-of-its-kind trial that tests a treatment for abnormal brain activity sometimes referred to as a “brain tsunami.” 

The phenomenon is officially called a spreading depolarization (SD). UC’s Jed Hartings, PhD, principal investigator of the trial, explained that just like a battery, brain cells have a stored, or polarized, charge that enables them to send electrical signals to each other.  

During SD, the brain cells lose their charge, becoming depolarized and unable to send electrical signals to each other.  

“We’re finding out it is a likely culprit in more and more diseases than we ever thought imaginable. It’s kind of like the hidden iceberg below the surface,” Hartings, professor and vice chair of research in the Department of Neurosurgery in UC’s College of Medicine, told Memphis, Tennessee television station Action News 5.

There is no current standard of care to treat SD, and in the trial, an electrode strip is placed in patients' brains to monitor activity. Neurocritical care experts like Laura Ngwenya, MD, PhD, can then more closely manage blood pressure, blood sugar and body temperature or administer the drug ketamine to stop SDs.  

"This has actually been revolutionary, in terms of how we think about how we treat brain injury patients,” Ngwenya, associate professor and director of neurotrauma in the Department of Neurosurgery in UC’s College of Medicine, told Action News 5.

Watch or read the Action News 5 story.

Read more about the research.

Featured photo at top of neurons. Photo/Imaginima/iStock.