View clinical trials related to Spinal Cord Injuries.
Filter by:After spinal cord injury, patients develop a spastic syndrome that is characterized by hyperactive reflexes, increased muscle tone, clonus and involuntary muscle spasms. The neuronal mechanisms behind the development of spasticity remain largely unknown, though animal experiments have shown that changes occur both at the level of the motoneuron and sensory neurons. This project aims to examine the changes that occur in the modulation of sensory afferent transmission after spinal cord injury, and how these changes can contribute to the triggering and initiation of muscle spasms after chronic spinal cord injury in humans. It is known that after spinal cord injury, the majority of descending sources of monoamines, such as serotonin (5HT), are abolished. Animal experiments have shown that 5HT receptors on sensory neurons in the spinal cord are responsible for inhibiting sensory transmission. As a result, after spinal cord injury these receptors are no longer activated below an injury, resulting in the production of large, long excitatory responses in the motoneuron when sensory are activated. This large sensory activation of the motoneuron can, in turn, activate a long response in the motoneuron to produce an involuntary muscle spasm. The aim of our study is to determine whether, similar to animal experiments, the 5HT1 receptors are responsible for sensory inhibition in spinal cord injured subjects, and whether activating these receptors (through the 5HT1 agonist Zolmitriptan) will restore the normal inhibition of sensory transmission that is lost after injury, thereby resulting in a decrease in the initiation of involuntary muscle spasms.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether botulinum toxin A is effective in the treatment of neuropathic pain in spinal cord injury patients.
The purposes of this study were to evaluate the influence of an interdisciplinary rehabilitation program in the improvement of the health-related quality of life among adult neurological patients and to identify the sociodemographic and clinical associated characteristics. Subjects with spinal cord injury, acquired brain injury and poliomyelitis survivors participated in the study. All participants underwent a rehabilitation program (RP) from January 2008 through July 2010, which consists of 40-minutes of many therapies for 1-2 days a week. The WHOQOL-BREF was applied at the initial and discharge assessments.
The aim of the study is to determine the safety and feasibility of an autologous mononuclear stem cells infusion in pressure ulcers of paraplegic patients; and moreover, to evaluate the efficacy of the treatment.
The main goal of this project is to determine the effects of lidocaine lubricant on cardiovascular function during routine bowel care in individuals with spinal cord injury. Bowel care is a common trigger of blood pressure and heart rate changes after spinal cord injury. In this project, we will be measuring blood pressure and heart rate non-invasively during normal bowel routine (which can be performed in the subject's home or at one of the investigators facilities). The measurements will occur twice over a period of 28 days: once using lidocaine lubricant and once using normal (placebo) lubricant. The recording equipment will be attached and subjects will have complete privacy during their bowel routine. The trial will be double-blind, meaning that neither the subject or the Nurse Continence Advisor who assists with testing will know which lubricant is being used for each test. The use of a lubricant gel containing an anesthetic is the standard of care in many hospital facilities when performing bowel care for individuals with spinal cord injury; however, it is not often used in the home setting. It is thought that using anaesthetic might reduce the cardiovascular effects of bowel care after spinal cord injury. However, it is not known whether this is the case. The investigators hypothesize that the lidocaine lubricant will alleviate some of the blood pressure and heart rate changes that occur during bowel care.
This study will demonstrate that vaporized marijuana results in antinociception when compared to placebo in subjects with spinal cord injury. To further evaluate potential benefits and side effects, the effect of different strengths of cannabis on mood, cognition, and psychomotor performance will also be measured.
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether combining a noninvasive method of brain stimulation, called Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), enhances the effect of training of the affected upper limbs in patients with incomplete Spinal Cord Injury.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether exercising (walking) at different intensities increases levels of factors in the blood and saliva that are known to impact neuroplasticity (how the connections in the spinal cord and brain can change) and if these levels are changed by pairing exercise with a single dose of commonly used prescription drugs or by your mood.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether there are functional improvements in arm muscles and movments for spinal cord injured indviduals after performing video gaming.
The main goal of this research is to understand the neuronal mechanisms that mediate the development of spasticity and motor dysfunction after spinal cord injury. The investigators examine how neurons and neuronal circuits in an injured nervous system adapt to produce the uncontrolled and unwanted muscle contractions that affect the majority (80%) of patients with spinal cord injury. One of the neurons that the investigators study is the motoneuron that excites the muscles of the limbs to produce movement. Previously, the investigators have shown that after spinal cord injury, the excessive and uncontrolled activity of motoneurons during muscle spasms is mediated, in large part, by the activation of calcium currents in the human motoneuron. In human patients the investigators have used recordings from single muscle fibres to estimate the contribution of these calcium currents in activating the motoneuron during muscle spasms. In this proposal, the investigators study why motoneurons recover these calcium currents and self-sustained activity after chronic spinal cord injury. Because the calcium currents require the presence of the monoamine serotonin (5HT) to activate, and this monoamine is greatly reduced after injury, the investigators examine if the calcium currents recover because the 5HT receptors become spontaneously active without the need for 5HT to bind to the receptor, which the investigators hypothesize to be one of the causes of spasticity after spinal cord injury. This research will pave the way to develop new pharmacological and rehabilitative therapies to both control spasticity after spinal cord injury and augment residual motor movements.