eye tracking technology in the diagnosis of neurological patients

Conditions: Postcomatose Unawareness State; Minimally Conscious State; Vegetative State; Disorder of Consciousness; Post-Traumatic Coma; Neurological Injury; Traumatic Brain Injury; Diagnosis; Cognitive Dysfunction; Neurological Disease

Summary: demonstrating that diagnostics of the state of consciousness and cognitive functions of patients with consciousness disorders performed using c-eye x (based on eye-tracking technology) allows a more objective assessment of state of patients who were wrongly diagnosed based on popular methods using in a clinical practice (like behavioural scales on paper forms).

the aim of this study is to perform a clinical evaluation of the authors' original battery of diagnostic tests in the c-eye x system (based on eye-tracking technology), addressed to patients who have suffered damage to the central nervous system (cns) with communication barriers. validation is being conducting for 2 original diagnostic tests: mcsd (minimally conscious state detection): to differentiate patients' state of consciousness (for patients diagnosed as being in unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (uws) or minimally consciousness state (mcs) and cfa (cognitive functions assessment) to assess the level of preserved cognitive functions in patients (for patients diagnosed as being in at least minimally consciousness state minus (mcs-). the intention of the project's authors is to introduce a novel diagnostic solution that will help reduce misdiagnoses made for neurological patients with reduced consciousness, due to the inadequacy of current behavioural tools to work with patients after severe brain damage.

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: 1. completed 18 years of age. 2. consent of the legal guardian to participate in the study and access to medical records. 3. medical diagnosis indicating damage to the central nervous system. 4. having and sharing a description of imaging tests (alternatively mri - magnetic resonance imaging or ct - computed tomography) and (alternatively) ophthalmoscopy, ophthalmology, auditory tests. 5. presentation of a list of medications used by the patient that may affect the results obtained in tests of cognitive function. 6. acceptance by a physician (e.g. neurologist, neurosurgeon, internist) to participate in a clinical trial, taken after reviewing the study protocol, including there is a need to take into account: 1. the ability to communicate only by sight (no verbal, sign or other communication), 2. the absence of dementia and aphasic disorders before the event that led to cns damage and the patient's current condition, 3. preserved at least one functioning eyeball (possibility of cooperation with an eye tracker). exclusion criteria: 1. visual defect (refractive defect) diagnosed before the incident, requiring work with glasses with lenses of more than ±3 diopters. 2. inclusion of drug treatment during the study (observation), which can affect the patient's cognitive functioning (both in terms of cognitive enhancement and impairment/dementia).

Keywords: coma hypoxia cognitive functions assessment (cfa) trauma cognitive assessment diagnostic test reduced consciousness eye tracking unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (uws) minimally conscious state detection (mcsd) brain injury coma recovery