View clinical trials related to Spinal Cord Diseases.
Filter by:This study randomizes neck and arm pain patients being treated with discectomy and anterior interbody fusion into two groups: one to receive a new ceramic implant and a control group with a more traditional plastic implant. The study will measure and compare pain and disability improvement with the two products over a period of two years. The fusion status will also be judged with plane x-rays and one CT scan.
The purpose of this study is to collect biofluid samples for the banking and usage in ALS research. Through comparison of these samples, the researchers hope to learn more about the underlying cause of ALS, as well as find unique biological markers, which could be used to develop new therapies.
The investigators propose a prospective study, designed to analyze the efficacy of High-Resolution Diffusion Tensor Imaging for accurately sensing white matter tracts in subjects with spinal cord injury. Study subjects will not be randomized, as treatment will follow the doctor's "standard of care." Patients will be selected and offered enrollment based upon the clinical diagnosis of spinal cord injury, either due to degenerative disease or trauma. Enrollment will be based on the chronology of patient presentation.
CSM (Cervical spondylotic myelopathy) is the most common cause of spinal cord injury worldwide. While there is evidence from the recently completed SpineNet prospective study that surgical decompression is an effective treatment for CSM, it is clear that many patients have remaining neurological impairment. While surgery is relatively safe, approximately 3% of patients maintain a neurological problem. Given this background and data from preclinical models of non-traumatic and traumatic spinal cord injury, there is strong evidence to consider the potential benefit of adding a neuroprotective drug which aids in the treatment of patients with CSM whom are undergoing surgical decompression. Riluzole is FDA-approved for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which has some similar clinical features to CSM. Riluzole is currently under investigation for traumatic spinal cord injury. Given this background, there is a strong basis to consider studying the potential neurological benefits of Riluzole as a treatment to surgical decompression in patients with CSM.
The purpose of this study is to assess the safety of the long-term use of pregabalin at doses up to 600 mg/day in patients with central neuropathic pain (post spinal cord injury pain, post stroke pain, and multiple sclerosis pain).
Evaluation of Wire Electrodes to Activate the Expiratory Muscles to Restore Cough
The purpose of this research study is to examine whether computer based or virtual reality based driving assessments are as useful as real-world power wheelchair driving tests in measuring driving performance and whether they may be useful in helping to identify the problems that some individuals may have with driving power wheelchairs. The specific aims are as follows: Specific Aim 1: To develop computer-based and VR-based wheelchair driving assessments for both drivers and non-drivers that correspond to an accepted real-world driving assessment (Power Mobility Road Test) and compare them to the real-world assessment and to each other. Specific Aim 2: To develop additional features of the computer-based and VR-based assessments that present dynamic tasks and determine whether skills on these tasks can be delineated within the virtual environment.
The purpose of this study is to look at the safety (what are the side effects) and efficacy (how well does it work) of Gadavist when used for taking images of the brain and spine. The results of the MRI with Gadavist Injection will be compared to the results of MR images taken without contrast and with the results of the MR images taken with OptiMARK.
HAM/TSP is a chronic disease of the spinal cord, caused by a virus called HTLV-I. Worldwide approximately 20 million persons are infected.Infection with HTLV-I is lifelong, and about 3% of infected persons will develop this chronic debilitating disease, of which half will become wheelchair dependent. We, and others, have shown a strong and persistent immune response to HTLV-I in carriers and patients with HAM/TSP, but this fails to clear the virus. However, carriers with a low burden of virus in the blood have a low risk of developing disease. The immune response in these carriers seems better able to kill infected cells. A less efficient response is associated with a higher viral burden that drives the immune response with a resultant release of chemicals by the immune cells that inadvertently cause harm, most especially to cells in the spinal cord. Our understanding of HAM/TSP suggests that targeting the immune response should improve the health of our patients especially if the disease is diagnosed early. To identify the best type of treatment we are planning a series of studies of drugs that target the immune response in different ways. Each has been used in other inflammatory conditions but never before studied in HAM/TSP. We aim to study the extent and duration of the clinical response and to associate this with the different effects that the therapies have on the immune response and on the number of HTLV-I infected cells in the blood. This in turn will improve our knowledge and understanding of the disease and should lead to better therapy. This application is in relation to the first study - to explore that therapeutic benefit of ciclosporin in patients with HAM/TSP.
The purpose of this clinical investigation is to assess the safety and effectiveness of using the PRESTIGE-LP device in the treatment of patients with symptomatic degenerative disc disease at two adjacent levels of the cervical spine, with overall success being the primary endpoint of the clinical trial. The primary objective is to show non-inferiority of the investigational device to the control treatment. If non-inferiority is established, superiority will also be examined as the secondary objective.