View clinical trials related to Apraxias.
Filter by:Motor slowing and cognitive slowing are more prevalent as we age. Importantly, the presence of both in an older person increases their risk of having dementia by ten times. Currently, there are no clinically meaningful predictors of progression to dementia in people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The main hypothesis is that subtle variations in gait while performing a simple cognitive task is a reliable, easy to perform, and feasible methodology to detect those older adults at higher risk of progression to dementia and also, at higher risk of further mobility decline and falls. Rationale. The Canadian population is aging. According to recent estimates, the proportion of the population aged 65 and older will increase rapidly from 13% in 2005 to 25% by 2031. This increase in proportion is accompanied by a considerable amount of disability and subsequent dependency which has major effects on both the quality of life of older adults and their caregivers, and on the Canadian health care system. An important goal of geriatric medicine is to reduce the gap between life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy by reducing disability and dependency in the later years of life. A substantial portion of this disability stems from two major geriatric syndromes: cognitive impairment and mobility limitation. The ultimate manifestations of these syndromes are dementia and falls. Interestingly, these manifestations often coexist in elderly people: falling is a common geriatric syndrome affecting about a third of older adults each year, and dementia affects about a third of Canadians aged 80 and over. Together, dementia and falls are responsible for much of the discomfort, disability, and health care utilization in older adults and each will become more prevalent as older Canadians are expected to number approximately $9 million by 2031. The combined direct cost of dementia and falls for the Canadian Health System is over $4.9 billion per year. Establishing reliable and easy to obtain predictors to accurately identify MCI patients at highest risk of progressing to dementia is essential first, to determine who will benefit from additional and/or invasive testing and second, to implement preventative strategies, including cognitive training, physical exercises, and aggressive vascular risk factors correction to delay progression. Even a modest one-year delay in dementia incidence could save Canada $109 billion over 30 years.
Epidemiological studies report that 85% of stroke survivors show hemiparesis and a percentage ranging from 55% to 75% report upper limb functional impairment. Early rehabilitation in stroke patients with motor disorders can be effective to restore the affected function and to improve the performance of daily activities. Up to now, different methods and techniques have been used to recover motor functions in stroke patients. However, none of these has been conclusively proven to be more effective than the others. The clinical benefits induced by motor rehabilitation are closely related to "neuroplasticity". The main aim of the present study is to assess the efficacy of action observation treatment, based on Mirror Neuron System (MNS), in the rehabilitation of upper limb motor functions in acute stroke patients. The study will also aim at assessing neuroplasticity within areas belonging to the MNS through functional magnetic resonance (fMRI).
Impaired speech production is a major obstacle to full participation in life roles by stroke survivors with aphasia and apraxia of speech. The proposed study will demonstrate the short-term effects of auditory masking on speech disfluencies and identify individual factors that predict a positive response, enabling future work to develop auditory masking as a treatment adjuvant targeting long-term improvement in speech. Providing an additional treatment option for adults with aphasia and apraxia of speech will have the clear benefit of improving quality of life and allowing individuals to participate more actively in their health care decisions through improved communication.
The study is designed to determine the relationship between structural and functional changes in the brain on imaging and progression of speech and language, neurological and neuropsychological features in patients with neurodegenerative apraxia of speech (AOS).
CoRDS, or the Coordination of Rare Diseases at Sanford, is based at Sanford Research in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It provides researchers with a centralized, international patient registry for all rare diseases. This program allows patients and researchers to connect as easily as possible to help advance treatments and cures for rare diseases. The CoRDS team works with patient advocacy groups, individuals and researchers to help in the advancement of research in over 7,000 rare diseases. The registry is free for patients to enroll and researchers to access. Visit sanfordresearch.org/CoRDS to enroll.