View clinical trials related to Spinal Cord Injuries.
Filter by:Persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) are confronted with a multitude of psychological and physiological changes post-injury leading to seemingly insurmountable barriers to participating in daily life. After injury persons with SCI engage in fewer social interactions, spend more time sedentary, and are less likely to leave the home. This leads to restricted social participation that, in turn, contributes to greater psychological problems and negatively impacts the lives of adults with SCI. Intense, structured exercise has substantial potential benefits for improving psychosocial wellbeing among persons with SCI, but accessible exercise options are few and cannot achieve high intensities of whole-body exercise. This work will use approaches to overcome the barriers to intense exercise. The investigators will use hybrid functional electrical stimulation row training (FESRT) to allow for a more intense exercise stimulus, potentially having a greater impact on psychosocial wellbeing. There is initial evidence that persons with mobility impairments who are highly physically active demonstrate better psychosocial wellbeing compared with those who have low levels of physical activity. A limitation to understanding the influence of exercise on psychosocial wellbeing is the lack of robust and time-dependent measures. The investigators will use a smartphone-based research application to measure psychosocial well-being, thus decreasing self-report bias and capturing in-the-moment behavioral and self-report data.
The purpose of the current study is to investigate the effects of powered exoskeleton (EKSO) on cardiovascular performance as measured by resting blood pressure and heart rate, peak oxygen consumption during walking, energy expenditure, whole and regional body composition assessments. The effects of exoskeleton training on walking kinematics including stand-up time, walking time, distance covered and speed of walking will also be evaluated.
Researchers are trying to evaluate and recommend sustainable and effective health and wellness programs for people with spinal cord injury (SCI) and other physical disabilities.
The specific aim of this study is to evoke functional movement in the hand of both healthy individuals and individuals diagnosed with a stable cervical spinal cord injury with non-functional movement of the fingers. The primary purpose of this study is to determine the feasibility of achieving refined hand movements through electrical stimulation of the muscles within the forearm. It is believed that this study will be able to identify specific stimulation parameters and electrode spatial configurations responsible for various refined hand movements. After an eligible individual agrees to participate in this study, s/he will receive transcutaneous electrical stimulation on the forearm in order to evoke different hand and finger movements. The precision, specificity, and extent of these movements will be visually assessed. In order to better evaluate these movements, participants may also be asked to perform various functional tasks with their hand. The grip strength and evoked forces at the fingertips will also be measured using sensors. There will be up to 4 study sessions each week for up to 8 weeks, with each session lasting up to 4 hours. Upon completion of these study sessions, the individual's participation in the study is considered complete.
Aim 1: Determine the neurophysiologic impact of Transcutaneous Spinal Cord Stimulation (TSCS) within a single session. The investigators hypothesize that subjects will demonstrate increased volitional muscle activity and strength with TSCS. This will be assessed by surface EMG and hand-held dynamometry of the dominant-side quadriceps muscle during maximum volitional contraction (MVC) and measurement of gait speed. Subjects will be tested in both TSCS and sham conditions. Aim 2: Determine the impact of TSCS and gait training on walking function. The investigators hypothesize that concurrent TSCS and gait training will augment walking function in subjects with iSCI, as compared to gait training alone. Subjects will participate in an eight-week program of gait training with TSCS and be assessed with clinically relevant outcome measures, to include the Timed Up and Go, 10-Meter Walk Test, Walking Index for Spinal Cord Injury II, and 6-Minute Walk Test.
This study is a prospective national survey of body mass index, and includes all patients with a new spinal cord injury hospitalized at Clinic for Spinal Cord Injuries, Rigshospitalet and Spinal Cord Injury Center of Western Denmark during a period of 9 months. Informed consent is retrieved from all participants.
The present study will analyze if exercise is able to elicit the well-known anti-atherogenic effects in patients with SCI. This will be evaluated by measuring vascular parameters such as endothelial and inflammatory blood markers, echocardiography of the heart and peripheral vessels, as well as blood pressure and arterial stiffness, in subjects performing either wheelchair dancing, wheelchair marathon or no sports. Further, it will be investigated, whether there is an association between neuroplasticity and cardiovascular health, as measured by electroencephalography (EEG), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and blood levels of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). We hypothesize that the cardiovascular, physical and psychological benefits of wheelchair dancing and/or wheelchair marathon parallel improved neuroplasticity in SCI-patients
Denervation following spinal cord injury (SCI) limits beneficial application of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES). SCI with denervation results in extensive muscle atrophy that is accompanied with several cardio-metabolic health risks. The current proposal provides a novel intervention by examining the effects of long pulse width stimulation (LPWS) and testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) on restoring muscle size and leg lean mass after denervation in persons with SCI. This intervention will be rewarding for Veterans and Civilians with SCI who do not benefit from exercising their lower extremity muscles because denervation has limited the response to standard surface NMES. The investigators will study the biochemical mechanisms that contribute to changes in muscle size following this novel training. Combing both pharmaceutical and physical-therapeutic interventions will optimize restoration of muscle size after SCI.
Adaptive gait assessements will be evaluated as a potential new marker for tracking locomotor recovery throughout rehabilitation of spinal cord injury subjects. To this end, controls, subacute and chronic patients will be assessed at two timepoints with 3 month standard rehabilitation inbetween. The specific assessments will require the participant to acitvely modulate their gait pattern to fullfill specific task constraints. Their performance will be assessed via 3D kinematics, kinetics and EMG and these measures will be used to describe the adaptive capacity that the patient retains. Sensitivity and specificity of these markers will be determined. With more sensitive descriptors of gait function and quality, locomotor rehabilitation for SCI can be better designed and smaller effects can be accurately measured.
The objective of the study is to explore and understand how urodynamic parameters are affected when emptying the bladder with an intermittent catheter.