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Spinal Cord InjuriesTRACK-SCINCT04565366

Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in Spinal Cord Injury

An observational study of Spinal Cord Injuries, run by University of California, San Francisco at 5 sites in United States.

Enrolling by invitation

Enrolling by invitation. The study team selects and invites participants, usually from an existing group of patients.

Sites and contacts
Official record
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Trial summary

The overall goal of Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in Spinal Cord Injury (TRACK-SCI) study is to determine the relationships among the clinical, neuroimaging, cognitive, genetic and proteomic biomarker characteristics of acute traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI). Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 18 years and olderHealthy volunteers can take part
Conditions the study is for
Spinal Cord Injuries
How many people
726 participants
Where
5 sitesUnited States
Study dates
14 May 2015to 1 Dec 2028
Phase
Observational
Are there results?
Not yet: the study is under way

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 18 years and older
  • All sexes
  • Healthy volunteers accepted
  • Adult, Older adult

Study population: The investigators will enroll patients presenting to the Emergency Department with an acute SCI, in which the patient has sustained a traumatically induced disruption of spinal cord function, as manifested by one of the following: detection through clinical assessment of motor and/or sensory deficit from baseline, and/or radiologic evidence of cord signal disruption. For trauma controls, investigators will recruit non-neurological traumatic injury patients from the ED. For healthy controls, investigators will recruit primarily friends and family members of SCI participants.

Who may be able to join

  • For SCI group: individuals at least 18 years of age recently diagnosed with acute, traumatic spinal cord injury
  • For Trauma Control group: individuals at least 18 years of age recently diagnosed with acute, traumatic injury that is not spinal cord injury
  • For Healthy Control group: generally healthy individuals at least 18 years of age not recently diagnosed with acute, traumatic injury (including SCI)

Who cannot join

  • Individuals who are pregnant
  • Individuals who are in-custody/prisoners
  • Individuals who are under psychiatric hold
  • For non-SCI individuals, they must not have had a spinal cord injury in the past
  • For non-SCI individuals, they must not have a history of previous central nervous system injury (i.e. stroke, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, seizures, etc.)

Trial locations and contacts

5 sites in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.

5 sites in 1 country

United States5 sites
  • Ohio State University

    Columbus, Ohio, 43210

  • University of California, San Francisco - Fresno

    Fresno, California, 93721

  • University of Utah

    Salt Lake City, Utah, 84132

  • University of California, San Francisco

    San Francisco, California, 94143

  • University of Washington

    Seattle, Washington, 98104

Other trials in United States

About this study

Official title: Early Critical Care Decisions and Outcomes After SCI: TRACK-SCI

The overall goal of Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in Spinal Cord Injury (TRACK-SCI) study is to determine the relationships among the clinical, neuroimaging, cognitive, genetic and proteomic biomarker characteristics of acute traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI). TRACK-SCI seeks to combine high quality care variables with high density physiology data collection to better understand diagnose, characterize, and track the temporal profile of recovery for SCI patients. The Investigators are enrolling patients within 24 hours of injury who present to a TRACK-SCI site with a spinal cord injury that meets eligibility criteria.

Read the detailed description

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a major cause of morbidity worldwide with debilitating impacts on quality of life and the healthcare system. To date, a data-dense research registry specific to SCI remains to be constructed. To this end, the study will collect SCI data across five primary domains: 1) demographics and baseline history, 2) clinical course variables from the emergency department (ED) to the intensive care unit (ICU), 3) standard of care neuroimaging (CT and MRI) and intraoperative neuromonitoring, 4) blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples for proteomic and genetic biomarkers, and 5) outcome measures of functional disability, mental health and quality of life at 3, 6, and 12 months. The investigators seek to correlate these high-density physiology data with baseline risk factors, imaging parameters, and biomarkers for a comprehensive approach to SCI diagnosis during acute care as well as prognosis across subacute and chronic phases of recovery -- in order to truly step toward the advancement of research and clinical knowledge in SCI.

The main objective is to provide a comprehensive prospective analysis of multiple variables in acute SCI that impact long-term outcomes. This is intended to provide a rich resource for asking key questions related to the optimization of treatment, and the planning and execution of pivotal clinical trials in SCI.

Core Hypotheses:

  1. Multiple critical care variables will be predictive of both sensorimotor and autonomic outcomes, and susceptibility to infections at discharge and 6 and 12 mos after injury.
  2. Quantitative MRI indices of cord damage, and biomarkers of acute immune responses to injury will predict neurological outcomes at discharge and at 6 and 12 mos.
  3. The multivariate analysis of the constellation of acute variables and long-term outcome measures will yield new derived predictors of outcome that will facilitate stratification for clinical trials.

Specific Aims:

Aim 1. Diagnosis: Building a knowledge network for acute SCI. A detailed prospective study of critical care practices and outcomes for SCI patients admitted to TRACK-SCI sites will be conducted to build a knowledge network for acute SCI diagnostics.

Aim 2. Prognosis: Predictive models and biomarkers. The research team will develop multidimensional prognostic indicators for predicting outcomes and stratifying patients using detailed physiological, imaging, and genetic datasets.

Aim 3: Data analysis and sharing. The development of better predictors of outcome and methods for stratification will be advanced by allowing qualified access to our granular data. The availability to qualified users of the detailed acute 'diagnostic' dataset along with gene-expression data and functional outcomes at 6\&12 mos will leverage the project as a valuable international SCI community resource.

Keywords
Spinal Cord Injury, Biomarkers, Neuroimaging, NINDS Common Data Elements, Spine Injury, Neurosurgery, Neurology
Medical subject headings
Spinal Cord Injuries, Spinal Injuries

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

Study groups in NCT04565366
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
Spinal Cord InjuryIndividuals recently admitted to hospital and diagnosed with acute, traumatic spinal cord injury.
Trauma ControlIndividuals recently admitted to hospital and diagnosed with an acute, traumatic injury that is not spinal cord injury.
Healthy ControlGenerally healthy individuals not recently diagnosed with an acute, traumatic injury (including spinal cord injury).

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. Gene expression level in number of messenger RiboNucleic Acid (mRNA) transcripts for all genes expressed in white blood cells

    Obtained from a 4.0mL blood draw

    Measured: Baseline (healthy control group), or as close as possible to time of injury (SCI and trauma control group)

  2. International Standards for Neurological Classification of Spinal Cord Injury (ISNCSCI) (SCI Only)

    American Spinal Injury Association standard assessment for documentation of the level and severity of a spinal cord injury (SCI). The ISNCSCI yields a grade from A to D, wherein A indicates greater severity.

    Measured: From admission to 12 months post-injury

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted25 Sep 2020
  2. Study start14 May 2015
  3. Primary completion1 Dec 2028 (estimated)
  4. Study completion1 Dec 2028 (estimated)

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Observational
Observational model
Case-control
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrolment
726 participants (estimated)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT04565366
Sponsor's protocol ID
SC150198
Other IDs
W81XWH-16-1-0497
Acronym
TRACK-SCI
Status last verified
Jul 2025
First submitted
21 Sep 2020
Last updated
1 Aug 2025
Results posted
No
Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
Individual data sharing
Yes: All data (de-identified) that underlie results in a publication will be made available to other researchers upon Executive Committee approval. Select de-identified datasets will be made publicly available via the Open Data Commons for Spinal Cord Injury (ODC-SCI), accessible at \<https://scicrunch.org/odc-sci\>.

Publications

  • Talbott JF, Whetstone WD, Readdy WJ, Ferguson AR, Bresnahan JC, Saigal R, Hawryluk GW, Beattie MS, Mabray MC, Pan JZ, Manley GT, Dhall SS. The Brain and Spinal Injury Center score: a novel, simple, and reproducible method for assessing the severity of acute cervical spinal cord injury with axial T2-weighted MRI findings. J Neurosurg Spine. 2015 Oct;23(4):495-504. doi: 10.3171/2015.1.SPINE141033. Epub 2015 Jul 10.

    PubMed 26161519
  • Burke JF, Yue JK, Ngwenya LB, Winkler EA, Talbott JF, Pan JZ, Ferguson AR, Beattie MS, Bresnahan JC, Haefeli J, Whetstone WD, Suen CG, Huang MC, Manley GT, Tarapore PE, Dhall SS. Ultra-Early (<12 Hours) Surgery Correlates With Higher Rate of American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale Conversion After Cervical Spinal Cord Injury. Neurosurgery. 2019 Aug 1;85(2):199-203. doi: 10.1093/neuros/nyy537.

    PubMed 30496474
  • Tsolinas RE, Burke JF, DiGiorgio AM, Thomas LH, Duong-Fernandez X, Harris MH, Yue JK, Winkler EA, Suen CG, Pascual LU, Ferguson AR, Huie JR, Pan JZ, Hemmerle DD, Singh V, Torres-Espin A, Omondi C, Kyritsis N, Haefeli J, Weinstein PR, de Almeida Neto CA, Kuo YH, Taggard D, Talbott JF, Whetstone WD, Manley GT, Bresnahan JC, Beattie MS, Dhall SS. Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in Spinal Cord Injury (TRACK-SCI): an overview of initial enrollment and demographics. Neurosurg Focus. 2020 May 1;48(5):E6. doi: 10.3171/2020.2.FOCUS191030.

    PubMed 32357323
  • Dhall SS, Haefeli J, Talbott JF, Ferguson AR, Readdy WJ, Bresnahan JC, Beattie MS, Pan JZ, Manley GT, Whetstone WD. Motor Evoked Potentials Correlate With Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Early Recovery After Acute Spinal Cord Injury. Neurosurgery. 2018 Jun 1;82(6):870-876. doi: 10.1093/neuros/nyx320.

    PubMed 28973360
  • McCoy DB, Dupont SM, Gros C, Cohen-Adad J, Huie RJ, Ferguson A, Duong-Fernandez X, Thomas LH, Singh V, Narvid J, Pascual L, Kyritsis N, Beattie MS, Bresnahan JC, Dhall S, Whetstone W, Talbott JF; TRACK-SCI Investigators. Convolutional Neural Network-Based Automated Segmentation of the Spinal Cord and Contusion Injury: Deep Learning Biomarker Correlates of Motor Impairment in Acute Spinal Cord Injury. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2019 Apr;40(4):737-744. doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A6020. Epub 2019 Mar 28.

    PubMed 30923086

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

An observational study of Spinal Cord Injuries, run by University of California, San Francisco at 5 sites in United States.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 3 inclusion and 5 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: enrolling by invitation, as of the sponsor's last update on 1 Aug 2025. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 5 sites in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

Gene expression level in number of messenger RiboNucleic Acid (mRNA) transcripts for all genes expressed in white blood cells (time frame: Baseline (healthy control group), or as close as possible to time of injury (SCI and trauma control group)). The study lists 2 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT04565366, which also lists 5 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 1 Aug 2025.

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