View clinical trials related to Cysticercosis.
Filter by:The purpose of this protocol is to measure peripheral benzodiazepine receptors in the brain using positron emission tomography (PET) and compare the imaging results between patients and healthy people.
The purpose of this study is to determine if combination drug therapy of praziquantel and albendazole is safe and effective to cure neurocysticercosis.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether a short course of increased corticosteroid dosing with tapered dosing decreases seizure frequency as compared to standard corticosteroid dosing in patients with neurocysticercosis (NCC).
The purpose of this study is to determine if treatment with albendazole improves the clinical outcome of neurocysticercosis infection and/or leads to the disappearance of cysts sooner when compared with symptomatic treatment.
OBJECTIVES: I. Determine the effect of antiparasitic treatment with albendazole on the severity and duration of epilepsy due to neurocysticercosis. II. Determine the effect of a short course of albendazole on Taenia solium cysts present in the brain. III. Determine the natural regression of cerebral T. solium cysts in patients given placebo and their response to treatment at the end of the study.
This study will examine what causes seizures in patients with cysticercosis (pork tapeworm infection). A better understanding of this could lead to improved methods of controlling or preventing seizures. In humans, the pork tapeworm (Taenia solium) lives in the small intestine. The parasite's microscopic eggs travel around the body-including to the brain-where they develop into cysts. Usually, the cysts don't cause symptoms until they die. Then, they provoke an inflammatory reaction that irritates the brain, causing seizures and other symptoms. The inflammation eventually goes away, but the dead cysts remain. Calcium deposits often form where the cysts are. Some of the calcified cysts develop swelling around them that seem to be associated with the development of seizures. This study will explore how and why these dead, calcified cysts continue to cause seizures. In so doing, it will try to determine: 1) the best diagnostic imaging method for detecting swelling around the cysts; 2) how often swelling occurs; and 3) what makes some cysts prone to swelling and related seizure activity, while others are not. Patients with cysticercosis who have had seizures or who have known or possible swelling around calcified cysts will be studied with various tests, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) scans, electroencephalography (EEG), blood tests, and possibly lumbar puncture. Patients will be studied for two cycles of seizures (during active and quiet periods) or a maximum 4 years.