View clinical trials related to Cerebrospinal Fluid.
Filter by:Primary lung cancer is one of the most common malignancies in China, with 57 percent of patients being diagnosed at advanced stage. At present, advanced lung cancer has entered the era of precise treatment. So it is very important to determine the gene mutation status of the tumor and prescribe drugs at the targets. Liquid biopsy is a suitable alternative when tumor tissues are difficult to obtain. Liquid biopsy technique refers to the use of human body fluid as a sample source to detect the information of related diseases, including blood, urine, saliva and cerebrospinal fluid. It is non-invasive, fast and simple, and can avoid the problem of insufficient sample size and support for repeated sampling to continuously monitor disease. With the increasing incidence of lung cancer and the development of diagnosis and treatment technology, the survival period of patients has been extended, and the incidence and diagnosis rate of the brain metastasis of lung cancer have increased year by year. The brain metastasis of lung cancer is the most common type of brain metastatic tumor. The incidence rate is about 40-50%, and the prognosis is poor——the natural median survival period is about 1-2 months. Because of the impractical intracranial tumor biopsy and very low level of DNA in peripheral blood, cerebrospinal fluid, which makes close contact with brain tumors, becomes potential available samples. Several studies have shown that genetic testing of cerebrospinal fluid is feasible. Therefore, this study aims to test the cerebrospinal fluid, blood and tissue by the latest second-generation sequencing technology at different time points, to dynamically monitor the gene mutation status of cerebrospinal fluid, blood and tissue, to explore the role of cerebrospinal fluid biopsy in the diagnosis and treatment of non-small cell lung cancer with brain metastases.
Background: Parkinsons disease (PD) causes slow movement, stiffness, and poor balance. Many symptoms are due to the loss of brain cells that make the brain chemical dopamine. The cells may be damaged by the breakdown of dopamine by a process called oxidation. The drug N-acetylcysteine (NAC) can act as an antioxidant. Researchers want to test if NAC can decrease the oxidation of brain dopamine in people with PD. Objective: To look at the effect of NAC on brain chemistry in people with PD. Eligibility: People ages 18 and older with PD that were diagnosed within the past 5 years. They must be taking a monoamine oxidase inhibitor. Healthy volunteer participants ages 18 and older. Design: Participants will be screened with: Medical history Physical exam Blood and urine tests Participants will be hospitalized for 4 to 8 days. On day 1, participants will have blood and urine tests. For several hours, they cannot eat or drink anything but water and their medications. Late in the morning they will have a meal. About 2 hours later they will have a spinal tap (lumbar puncture). For this, a numbing medicine is injected into the back. A needle is inserted between the bones in the back to remove a small amount of fluid. The spinal tap may use x-rays to see inside the body. After the spinal tap, they will start taking NAC by mouth. They will take NAC twice a day for 2 more days. On the next day, they will not eat until a meal in the late morning. They will take a final NAC dose. About 2 hours later they will have a second spinal tap. Healthy Volunteer (HV) participants will receive a spinal tap on day one, followed by a second spinal tap 48 hours after the first spinal tap. HV participants will not receive NAC.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a uniformly progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disorder for which there is no known cure. In a novel attempt to widen the search for potential therapeutic agents, a NINDS- led cooperative group performed an in-vitro screening program of 1040 FDA approved drugs in over 28 assays relevant to various neurodegenerative disorders. Several cephalosporins showed hits in ALS relevant assays. Efficacy was noted in models suggesting increased expression of the astrocytic glutamate transporter, EAAT2, as well as models of superoxide dismutase mediated toxicity. Ceftriaxone is a third generation cephalosporin with good CNS penetration, a long half-life, and was effective in both types of ALS assays. Ceftriaxone has calcium binding activity, antioxidant properties, and rescues motor neurons in culture from chronic glutamate toxicity. Since completion of the original NINDS screen, Ceftriaxone has been shown to increase by three fold EAAT2 activity in rodent brains, due to ceftriaxone's ability to increase EAAT2 promotor activation This program is for the use of ceftriaxone in ALS for compassionate care. Currently ceftriaxone is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating bacterial infections but not for treating ALS. However, there is an ongoing phase I study -by NEALS Consortium and the National Institute of Health- with three cohorts -a placebo group and two groups receiving either 2 or 4 grams of ceftriaxone daily-. Unfortunately there are only a limited number of patients being enrolled and the next phase of the project will not be undertaken until next year. At this point there are ALS patients unable to participate in this Phase I trial and unlikely to be alive when the next phase of study begins. Some of these patients want to receive the drug and are willing to pay for the drug and nursing care. We are therefore requesting a compassionate use protocol for these patients who request the medication and are willing to pay for the drug and nursing care to administer it. Dr. Terry Heiman-Patterson will supervise the administration and safety monitoring including labs for renal and hepatic function as well as IV site inspection.
The purpose of a CSF repository is to collect samples of spinal fluid from controls and patients with neurologic disorders including but not exclusively ALS, Dementia, CRPS, neuropathies, and other neuromuscular diseases. This CSF repository will allow the use of CSF in biochemical studies of various neurologic diseases. It would also provide a supply of the necessary normal and disease control patients. CSF would be obtained from patients who are undergoing spinal taps for other reasons including diagnosis, treatment, or participation in clinical trials. We are proposing to collect an additional < 3 ml of CSF from a lumbar puncture that is already being performed for diagnostic or therapeutic reasons, in order to store it in our laboratory for use in future research studies. No lumbar punctures will be initiated specifically for this protocol.