View clinical trials related to Brain Diseases.
Filter by:Investigators at Boston Children's Hospital are conducting research in order to better understand the genetic factors which may contribute to epilepsy and related disorders. These findings may help explain the broad spectrum of clinical characteristics and outcomes seen in people with epilepsy.
Idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (INPH) is a treatable and a common disease of the elderly. The overall objective of this work is to describe cardio- and cerebrovascular risk factors and vascular disease in shunted INPH-patients compared to an age- and sex matched elderly population, as well as the impact of vascular risk factors and vascular co-morbidity on clinical symptoms and outcome of surgery in INPH-patients. The hypothesis is that INPH-patients have a higher level of vascular risk factors and subclinical organ damage than a normal elderly population, and that the higher the level of existing vascular risk factors, the more severe the symptoms of the hydrocephalic disease.
Patients with cirrhosis of the liver may suffer from a condition called hepatic encephalopathy which in its mildest form as mental slowing and impaired reaction times in driving and machinery operation. Left untreated it may lead to deep coma. The cause is not fully understood but is though to be related to the inability of a damaged liver to filter out toxins such as ammonia in the blood, which then accumulate within the brain and result in altered function and swelling within certain brain cells,astrocytes. These patients also suffer from muscle loss, which is associated with a poor outcome. L-ornithine L-aspartate(LOLA) is a licensed drug in Germany and has been shown to promote ammonia elimination from the body in the form of urea. Some experimental studies have suggested that LOLA also potentially attenuates muscle loss by incorporating ammonia into muscle in the form of glutamine. The aim of this study is to determine cognitive and nutritional effects of 12 weeks of LOLA administration and its effect on brain muscle structure and function in patients with cirrhosis.
100 ambulatory cirrhotic patients attending a liver transplant clinic will undergo a comprehensive clinical evaluation for severity of liver disease, anemia, depression, and fatigue. Fatigue will be assessed with the FIS and sub-maximal exercise capacity with the 6-minute walk test (6MWT), a standardized exercise test that measures the distance that a patient is capable of walking in 6 minutes (6MWD). Depression will be assessed by using three well-known questionnaires. The SF-36, Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI-II), EQ-5D, and the Psychological General Well-Being Index (PGWBI). Univariate analysis will be performed to select the factors that potentially are associated with the scores as indicated by a P value <.20; the selected factors will then be entered in a stepwise regression to create a multivariate model giving the combination of factors that are significantly associated with the measure of fatigue and depression. Hemoglobin (Hb) levels will then be added to the model in order to test its significance while controlling for the other factors.
This is a prospective study designed to examine the role of bacterial overgrowth and delayed intestinal transit and the effect of Rifaximin with hepatic encephalopathy (HE). This study is divided into Phase A and Phase B. The purpose of Phase A is to test patients with cirrhosis to determine if they have bacterial overgrowth which may lead to slow intestinal transit and hepatic encephalopathy. The purpose of Phase B is to investigate whether the improvement found in patients with hepatic encephalopathy taking Rifaximin is also related to decreased bacterial overgrowth. Subjects' mental capacity will be assessed at each visit via interview, brief mental status, questionnaires and psychometric evaluation. Any subject who appears to have lost capacity to continue participation, as evidenced by HE grade 2 or higher, a lack of attentiveness, concentration, or understanding of evaluation, will be discontinued from the study. Female subjects of childbearing potential will be asked to comply with the use of contraception during the Phase B study period as well as throughout the time they remain on study drug.
The purpose of the study is to evaluate the safety of Rifaximin or placebo in subjects with severe hepatic impairment and Hepatic Encephalopathy.
The purpose of the study is to evaluate if rifaximin alone or rifaximin plus lactulose delays the onset of hepatic encephalopathy (HE) in participants with cirrhosis who have had a previous episode of HE.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether taking Rifaximin (Xifaxan) in conjunction with the use of nutritional concepts is effective in improving morbidity and quality of life in cirrhotic patients suffering from hepatic encephalopathy (HE).
The aim of the study is: - Epidemiological/observational: investigating the presence of neuropsychological and electrophysiological alterations, suggesting a condition of minimal hepatic encephalopathy(and its behavioral correlates), in childhood and young adulthood affected by pre-hepatic portal hypertension due to portal vein thrombosis, even for implementing specific diagnostic protocols. - Interventional: collecting preliminary data on the effects of a probiotic, in order to implement a controlled clinical study.
This study is a randomized, controlled trial to assess safety and effectiveness of whole body hypothermia for 72 hours in preterm infants 33-35 weeks gestational age (GA) who present at <6 hours postnatal age with moderate to severe neonatal encephalopathy (NE). The study will enroll infants with signs of NE at 18 NICHD Neonatal Research Network sites, and randomly assign them to either receive hypothermia or participate in a non-cooled control group.