Tailoring blood pressure to protect brain blood flow during and after heart surgery
Official title: Cerebral Autoregulation in the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit: Associations with Postoperative Delirium, Cognitive Change, and Biomarkers of Brain Injury
Funded at Stanford University · NIH-11310140 · Data updated 2026-11-12
Aims to see if monitoring each person's brain blood-flow limits and personalizing blood-pressure targets during and after heart surgery reduces delirium and longer-term memory and thinking problems.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Stanford University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Stanford, United States) |
| Project start | May 1, 2021 |
| Project end | April 30, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $379,716 |
| NIH project number | 5R01AG072387-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11310140 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Adults undergoing cardiac surgery who will be cared for in the cardiac surgery intensive care unit, especially older adults or those with vascular risk factors, are the ideal candidates.
✕Less likely to help
People who are not having cardiac surgery or who will not receive ICU monitoring of blood pressure and brain perfusion are unlikely to be eligible or benefit directly.
What this research studies
If you have heart surgery, clinicians will monitor how well your brain keeps its blood flow steady (cerebral autoregulation) and record blood-pressure patterns in the cardiac surgery ICU. The team will personalize blood-pressure goals based on those brain-monitoring readings rather than using one-size-fits-all numbers. They will watch for delirium right after surgery, test thinking and memory over time, and collect blood markers that indicate brain injury. The study links early postoperative brain perfusion events to later cognitive change and dementia-related markers, building on prior operating-room work and extending monitoring into the ICU.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this approach could lower the chance of delirium after surgery and reduce longer-term cognitive decline by protecting the brain during a vulnerable period.
How similar studies have gone: Prior work by this group in the operating room suggests that personalizing blood-pressure targets using autoregulation monitoring is promising, but applying it in the ICU and linking it to long-term cognitive outcomes is relatively new.
Where this research is happening
-
Stanford University
Stanford, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Brown, Charles Hugh — Stanford University
- Study coordinator: Brown, Charles Hugh
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.