View clinical trials related to Parkinson Disease.
Filter by:The primary objective of this study is to demonstrate that transdermal nicotine treatment retards disease progression as measured by change in total Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS)(part I, II, III)score between baseline and after 52 weeks of study treatment plus two more months wash out (60 weeks).
Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most frequent neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer's disease. It causes motor dysfunctions, such as bradykinesia, resting tremor, rigidity and postural instability. Although PD appears to be sporadic in most cases, several causative genes and susceptibility factors have been identified that cause familial forms of the disease with Mendelian inheritance with autosomal dominant or autosomal recessive inheritance. Approximately 5~10% of patients with the clinical picture of PD carry a mutation in one of the known genes that cause monogenic forms of the disorder. The average age at onset is between 60 and 80 years and the average age of diagnosis is 60 years. Onset of primary parkinsonism before 50 years is known as early onset parkinsonism(EOP). Onset between 20 and 50 years is known as young-onset PD. Onset at younger than 20 years is known as juvenile parkinsonism (JP). At least, 13 loci and 9 genes are reported. The investigators study is aimed to screen the clinical diagnosed familial EOP for the common mutation site by PCR/DNA sequencing. The gene for screen are Parkin (pattern: PARK2), PINK1 (pattern: PARK6) and ATP13A2 (pattern: PARK9).
Balance control, physical activity and health related quality of life will be assessed before and after a 10 to 12 weeks training program as well as 6 and 12 months thereafter in 200 elderly (>60) with balance problems (100 with osteoporosis, 100 with Parkinson's disease). Osteoporosis subjects will be assigned to 3 groups (balance training, balance training and Nordic walking, or control group) and Parkinson's subjects to 2 groups (balance training or a control group). The training will be progressive and specific incorporating dual task exercises (directly related to an increased risk of falling). Clinical and laboratory gait and balance measures as well as questionnaires will be used to assess physical function and quality of life. An earlier study, investigating this training program in healthy elderly with balance problems showed that the training was well-tolerated and effective, with a significant increase in balance control, physical function and activity. In this study, we expect that an improvement in balance function, physical activity and health related quality of life, which will lead to a decreased number of falls, prevent and/or postpone incidence of a hazardous fall and thereby reduce the burden on the health care system. Our model for functional balance training and outcome methods will expand techniques and tools available to physical therapists and health care scientist treating and evaluating patients with loss of balance function. Elderly receiving therapy with the goal to improve or recuperate physical function and balance will benefit from this project.
Gait rehabilitation with treadmill has been reported to be useful in patients with Parkinson's disease. In the last years, interest in robotic devices for gait training has grew up for patients with different neurological disorders, since they minimize demands on physical therapists and may provide a more reliable and constant treatment. The aim of this study is to evaluate if robotic gait training with Lokomat® can improve walking more than conventional gait training with treadmill in patients affected by Parkinson's disease.
The purpose of this study is 1.) to determine if sensory attention focused exercise is an effective management strategy for Parkinson's disease, and 2.) to identify if the benefits are a result of strength gains.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of neuroprotection from granulocyte colony-stimulating factor on Parkinson disease
Exenatide is a licensed, safe and effective treatment for patients with Diabetes mellitus. Laboratory work has shown strong, reproducible evidence that this drug has beneficial "disease modifying" effects when given to animals with a range of experimental models of Parkinson's disease (PD). This project aims to make an initial evaluation of possible benefits of Exenatide among patients with moderate symptoms of PD. The drug will be given as a twice daily 10microgram injection under the skin in a similar way to one of the conventional "symptomatic" treatments for PD (Apomorphine). Forty patients with moderate symptoms of PD will be recruited and randomised to receive Exenatide injections twice daily, or to act as controls in this open label trial. Detailed assessments will be made of all patients at baseline and periodically for a total of 14 months. The primary outcome measure will be the change between baseline and follow up, in the severity of a validated PD assessment scale (the UPDRS part 3 motor score) after an overnight period free of conventional PD medication. Secondary measures will include adverse event reports, self completed questionnaires, and blood test results. Aside from these assessments, all patients will continue their regular PD medications throughout the trial with adjustments made only according to clinical need. In a subgroup of patients (n=10), brain scans that assess the severity of PD, will be performed at both baseline and follow up to help understand possible mechanisms of action of Exenatide.
The purpose of this study is to use a brain imaging method called PIB PET to determine dementia subtypes in patients with Parkinson's disease. The ultimate goal of this project is to be able to identify individuals with PD who are at risk of developing dementia, and to distinguish the underlying cause of dementia.
A decrease or loss of the sense of smell is very common in patients with Parkinson's Disease even in the earliest stages of the disease. There have been no treatments that have been proven to improve sense of smell in patients with Parkinson's Disease. Rasagiline (brand name: Azilect) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on May 16th 2006 to be used by Parkinson's patients to treat the motor symptoms associated with the disease. The purpose of this study is to see if there is change in sense of smell after starting Rasagiline.
This pilot study will assess the feasibility of using heavy water as a safe 'tracer' for biomarker studies of diseases of the brain and spinal cord, that, together, are also called the central nervous system (CNS). Heavy water, also called deuterated water or D20, is the same as normal drinking water except the hydrogen atoms have been replaced by deuterium, a naturally occurring isotope of hydrogen. In particular, this study will use heavy water to define: 1) The rate of immune cell proliferation (growth) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) compared to blood. This study will be examining a particular type of immune cell called T lymphocytes. 2) This study will also examine selected molecules generated by nerve cells of the CNS to understand their rate of secretion and turnover in healthy control participants, HIV-1-infected participants and participants with a non-HIV-related neurodegenerative disease such as Parkinson's disease (PD). This study will involve the administration of heavy water orally for either seven days, 12 days or six weeks. Measurements will be taken by lumbar puncture (LP, also known as a spinal tap). Blood (approximately five tablespoons per visit) will also be obtained at each of the lumbar puncture appointments. If this method can be used to establish the rates of immune cell turnover and the production rates of neuronal molecules using cerebrospinal fluid, it will provide unique data that is important to understand chronic neurodegenerative conditions, like PD, and to measure responses to targeted therapies. Hypothesis: 1. D2O, administered orally, can be used to measure the proliferation rates of CSF T cells (and, eventually, of their major phenotypic subsets). 2. D2O can be used to assess the turnover and production rates of CNS constituents that are normally or pathologically shed or secreted into the CSF, including (eventually): cargo molecules transported specifically in neurons in the CNS, such as chromogranin-A and -B, neuregulin-1 (specifically the extracellular secreted ectodomain of neuronal differentiation factor (NDF) isoform type α1, α2, β1, and the acetylcholine receptor inducing activity isoform (ARIA), secreted amyloid precursor protein (sAPP), alpha-synuclein; and APP metabolites amyloid beta (Aβ) 41 and 42.