View clinical trials related to Cerebrovascular Disorders.
Filter by:The purpose of this study is to determine whether active stimulation of the affected hemisphere will be more effective than simulated current in treatment of stroke
The objective of this study is to determine the mechanisms of stroke in patients with Intracranial Atherosclerotic Disease (IAD) by specifically evaluating limitations of antegrade flow through the stenotic artery, distal tissue perfusion to the affected territory, and artery-to-artery embolism. The hypothesis is that non-invasive imaging biomarkers that stratify stroke risk and distinguish mechanisms of IAD. This prospective multicenter study will enroll 175 patients with recently symptomatic high-grade IAD. Patients will be studied within 21 days of the index event (allowing appropriate time to arrange for diverse imaging modalities), with the following advanced neuroimaging techniques to elucidate mechanisms of recurrent ischemia: - Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (QMRA) to assess volumetric flow rate through the stenotic artery. - Magnetic resonance perfusion weighted imaging (PWI-MRI) to determine distal tissue perfusion. - Vasomotor reactivity by Transcranial Doppler using the breath-holding technique (BHI-TCD) to assess compensatory flow characteristics to the territory distal to the affected artery; - Transcranial Doppler with embolic signal monitoring to evaluate artery-to-artery embolism that reflects plaque instability. Patients will receive standardized medical management and its effectiveness on blood pressure, lipid, and glycemic control will be monitored. The primary outcome is recurrent stroke in the territory of the stenotic artery during a 1-year follow-up period; secondary outcomes are: a) new asymptomatic ischemic lesions on MRI in the distribution of the stenotic artery at 6-8 weeks, and b) transient ischemic attack (TIA) in the distribution of the stenotic artery during a 1-year follow-up period. Patients will be recruited at various sites that will be trained and certified on the imaging techniques employed. Raw imaging data will be interpreted centrally.
The present study aims to compare the relative therapeutic efficacy of prism adaptation therapy combined with real versus sham tDCS. The investigators will test the hypothesis that the magnitude and duration of neglect improvement will be increased when prism therapy is combined with real tDCS compared to sham tDCS. A second objective is to test whether individual differences in baseline clinical or brain imaging measures can predict: 1) neglect severity or 2) inter-individual differences in patients' therapeutic response. A third goal is to use brain imaging to characterize the patterns of neural change induced by the intervention to identify brain structures that mediate therapeutic response.
Background: More than 42% of older people (aged +65) have a stroke and most of them require some type of help to self-care at home. Informal caregivers have reported different types of need and have shown dissatisfaction with technical and emotional support delivered by community health teams. Furthermore, empowering informal caregivers who care after older stroke survivors is an important challenge, preventing them from negative outcomes such as burden, anxiety and depression or loss of physical function or hospitalization in older people. Objectives: This pilot study aims to implement and evaluate the impact of an intervention based on training and telephone support delivered to informal caregivers who care after older people post-stroke. Setting: Community health units in Northern Portugal region. Design/Methods: This single blinded randomized trial will be delivered by a community nursing team to informal caregivers 1 week, 1 and 3 months after a hospital discharge. Study outcome(s): The primary outcomes will be informal caregivers´ empowerment. Secondary outcomes will include burden and health quality of life in caregivers; functionality, hospital readmission and institutionalization of older people stroke survivors, measured 1 and 3 months after intervention. Results/Conclusion: Data collection started in February and will be concluded in August 2014. First results will be published at the beginning of 2015. The InCARE programme will be the first pilot in informal caregivers study ever conducted in Portugal. It will highlight new ways to support caregivers who take care of older people after a stroke. If successful, this study will be translational and it will also allow to disseminate the results in Portugal and abroad and implement it as best practice.
One of the crucial challenges for the future of Alzheimer's disease (AD) therapeutic approaches in elderly is to target the main pathological process responsible for disability and dependency. However, a progressive cognitive impairment occurring after the age of 70 is often related to mixed lesions of neurodegenerative and vascular origins. Whereas young patients are mostly affected by pure lesions, aging favors the occurrence of co-lesions of AD, vascular and Lewy body types. Pure DLB (Dementia with Lewy Body) and AD are distinct disorders but they often coexist in old age patients, the Abeta pathology of DLB/AD cases being different to that observed in patients with AD alone. Vascular dementia (VD) and AD with cerebrovascular disease (AD+CVD) are the leading causes of dementia next to AD alone. Lack of consensus persists about the diagnosis criteria for VD and AD+CVD, due in part to their clinical, pathological heterogeneity and the multiple pathological subtypes. We do not know the precise role and weight of each brain lesion type in the disability progression in elderly. To target the actual pathological process, we need to disclose the functional weight of AD, Lewy body and vascular lesion types in elderly. Most of the studies report on functional and clinical abnormalities in patients with pure pathologies. Thus, co-morbid processes involved in the transition from an independent functional status to disability in the elderly with co-lesions still remain to be elucidated. Neuropathological examination often performed at late stages cannot answer this question at mild or moderate stages. Brain MRI, Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) with DaTscan® and CSF biomarkers help routinely in performing the diagnosis of pure or mixed lesions responsible for dementia. The topography of the atrophy in MRI helps to provide information about the etiological diagnosis. Medial temporal lobe atrophy on MRI has good discriminatory power for AD compared to DLB and VD in pathologically confirmed cases. DaTscan® SPECT presents with good sensitivity and specificity at early stages of DLB. The good diagnosis value of CSF biological markers has led recently to their inclusion in the research diagnosis criteria of AD. Low Aβ1-42 and high levels of total tau and hyperphosphorylated tau isoforms appear to be the most sensitive and specific CSF biomarkers. Aβ1-42 is lowered in AD, as well as in other neurodegenerative diseases like DLB, VD. The combination of MRI, particularly medial temporal atrophy measures and vascular lesions on FLAIR MRI sequences, SPECT and CSF biomarkers seem to be of incremental value for the diagnosis AD, VD, DLB and mixed profiles. The aim of this study is to identify the biomarkers (MRI, SPECT-DaTscan® and CSF), and their combination, that are the most predictive of functional disability in elderly presenting with a progressive cognitive decline related to AD, DLB, VD and all mixed patterns.
Gait dysfunction often occurs following stroke, neurological or musculoskeletal disease, injury and surgery. One of the consequences of such deficit is an increased risk of fall and injury. A gait training regime that incorporates controlled perturbation has been found to reduce falls in elderly population but the effectiveness of such training has yet to be studied. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of specific controlled dynamic perturbation training, during gait, on gait rehabilitation, fear of falling and falling with gait impaired individuals. Perturbation will be performed using a specifically designed system that provides small, controlled and unpredictable perturbations during treadmill walking.
The essential arterial hypotension and allostasis registry is a prospective, observational research that has the purpose of demonstrating that essential blood pressure (BP) disorders and the associated comorbidities are a result of the inappropriate allostatic response to daily life stress. This required a functioning brain orchestrating the evaluation of the threat and choosing the response, this is a mind-mediated phenomenon. If the response is excessive it contributes to high BP, if deficient to low BP, and the BP itself will identify the allostatic pattern, which in turn will play an important role in the development of the comorbidities. To do so, consecutive patients of any age and gender that visit a cardiologist's office in Medellin, Colombia, are recruited. Individuals are classified according to their arterial BP and allostasis and follow them in time to see what kind of diseases develops the most (including BP) in the follow up according to the categorization of the characteristic chosen and after adjustment for confounder's variables. In addition, stress events with their date are registered. HYPOTHESIS The causes of the diseases are multifactorial. Physical, biochemical, psychological, social, and cultural dimensions of development dynamically interact to shape the health development process. A person´s health depends on their: 1. Biological and physiologic systems 2. External and internal environment (a) physical, b) internal behavioural and arousal state as registered by the brain. 3. Their interaction. The allostatic mechanisms to the internal and external stressors (allostatic load) involves a network composed by: 1. Functional systems; mediated by: 1. The Autonomic Nervous System 2. The endocrine system 3. The immune system 2. Structural changes: whenever the internal and/or external stressors are long lasting and/or strength enough, they may induce changes in: 1. Epigenetic, endophenotypes, polyphenism. 2. Plasticity 3. The interaction between a) and b). The network response do not affect exclusively the BP, propitiating the development of comorbidities, which may prompt strategies for prevention, recognition and ultimately, treatment. The allostatic model defines health as a state of responsiveness. The concept of psycho-biotype: The allostasis is the result of both: biological (allostasis) and psychological (psychostasis) abilities. It is proposed that both components behave in similar direction and magnitude. Immune disorders may be associated with the development of cancer. High BP population has a higher sympathetic and lower vagal tone, this has been associated with a decrease in the immune´s system function. Resources and energy depletion: Terms like weathering have been used to describe how exposures to different allostatic loads gradually scrape away at the protective coating that keeps people healthy. It is postulated that High BP individuals have more resources and energy.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of transcranial stimulation for upper limb training of patients with sequelae from an intracranial hemorrhage. Patients receive five days of upper limb occupational therapy training in combination with real or sham stimulation. Patients complete the Jebsen Taylor Hand Function Test before, after and 7 days later. The intervention takes place at patients' home address.
This study will assess the rate at which rosuvastatin will achieve LDL targets in African American patients with previous history of stroke or TIA.
Stroke associated pneumonia (SAP) affects a fifth of stroke survivors annually, tripling the risk of death at 30 days and contributing to poorer rehabilitation outcomes, prolonged hospital stays and dependency at discharge. Systematic review evidence indicates that enhanced oral health care (OHC) has a preventative effect on the incidence of pneumonia amongst nursing home populations (absolute risk reductions 6.6% to 11.7%; numbers needed to treat 8.6 to 15.3 individuals). There are strong theoretical reasons to suggest similar benefits might be observed in stroke care settings but current empirical evidence is weak - trial quality (randomisation, blinding, sample size, reporting), intervention description and thus feasibility of translation into clinical practice is very poor. Following an extensive pre-clinical programme of work, investigators now plan the pilot phase (Phase II) of a stepped-wedge cluster RCT of a well-developed and defined complex OHC intervention versus usual OHC. Investigators aim to establish a robust web-based randomisation process, refine the proposed intervention (training, tools, equipment), recruitment, adherence, record linkage and sampling methodologies. Investigators also aim to establish the relationship between SAP and plaque and any diversity between sites.