Active clinical trials for "Dystonia"

Movement disorders such as dystonia, hypertonia, and spasticity interfere with or prevent voluntary movement. Studies have suggested that using biofeedback to increase awareness of muscle activation can improve motor function in patients with motor deficits. The investigators hypothesize that the daily use of a surface electromyographic (SEMG) biofeedback device for one month will improve motor function in children and young adults with dystonia, hypertonia, and/or spasticity. The SEMG biofeedback device is worn over the muscle(s) the subject has difficulty in controlling and provides vibratory feedback about muscle activation. Groups of children and young adults (ages 3-21), with dystonia, hypertonia, and/or spasticity will be asked to wear a small (approx 1 square inch) sensory feedback device on their affected muscle(s) for 5 hours a day for one month. The device will vibrate and emit a blue light when the muscle is activated. At the start of the experiment, subjects will be tested on the Goal Attainment Scale (GAS), the Pediatric/Adolescent Outcomes Data Collections Instruments (PODCI), and the Barry Albright Dystonia Scale (BAD). For one month, subjects will practice goals without device. After a month, subject will be assessed again and be given device to practice goals for a month. After one month, the subjects will be tested on the outcome measures again and return device.

Dystonia is a movement disorder characterized by involuntary, sustained, often repetitive muscle contractions of opposite muscles that lead to abnormal twisting movements or odd postures. Essential tremor is a slowly progressive neurologic disorder characterized by the appearance of a tremor during the voluntary movement. The pathophysiology of dystonia or essential tremor is not fully elucidated. Dystonia and essential tremor are associated with dysfunction of the sensorimotor basal ganglia-cortical network and involvement of the cerebellum and cerebellar pathways has also been recently suggested. The investigators propose to study 30 patients having a primary dystonia (15 DYT11 genetically documented), 15 patients having an essential tremor without deep brain stimulation and 15 patients having an essential tremor with deep brain stimulation.A group of 30 healthy volunteers will be recruited and tested according to the same modalities. They will be paired in sex and age. 30 patients having a Parkinson disease will be also tested. Eye position will be sampled with a video-based monocular eye tracker (SMI, Germany) before and immediately after an adaptation task. Saccade adaptation is evaluated as the percentage change in the mean saccade amplitude between pre-test and post-test. Expected results: no or fewer alteration of the performance to the adaptation task in the Parkinson group than in the Essential Tremor group/ dystonia group. abnormal reactive saccade backward adaptation in the Dystonia group and Essential Tremor group, providing further neurophysiological evidence of cerebellar dysfunction.

Primary cranial-cervical dystonia is managed mainly by repeated botulinum toxin injections.This study is to establish whether subthalamic nucleus neurostimulation could improve symptoms in patients not adequately responding to chemodenervation or oral drug treatment. Investigators compared this surgical treatment with sham stimulation in a randomized, controlled clinical trial.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of botulinum toxin treatment in quality of life(QoL) in cervical dystonia patients

In this scheme, TMS treatment of Primary dystonia is planned by precise magnetic resonance positioning.

The investigators hypothesize that transcranial direct current stimulation over the motor cortex will reduce muscle overflow and improve hand function in children with primary or secondary dystonia.

This study is designed to demonstrate an in-house developed re-attachable stereotactic system that can markedly reduce the overall deep brain stimulation (DBS) procedure time to greatly facilitate subject access to neurosurgical restorative therapies. Subjects will consist exclusively of individuals who have been approved to undergo deep brain stimulation surgery for the treatment of a neurological disorder at Mayo Clinic - Rochester MN. This study is a quantitative comparative, between-subject study enrolling approximately 10 subjects.

Dystonia is defined as a syndrome of sustained muscle contractions resulting in repetitive movements and abnormal postures. DYT1 is the most common form of genetic dystonia, but the link between genomic mutations and phenotypic expression remains largely unknown. Furthermore, secondary forms of dystonia have highlighted the role of the basal ganglia, particularly the putamen in the pathophysiology of the disease. Experimental results in a genetic model of dystonia in rodents suggest that cholinergic inter-neurons (ACh-I) of the putamen play a critical role in the pathological process of plasticity in the cortico-striatal synapse. However, these results have not been demonstrated in humans.

The purpose of this study is to compare the cervical muscular force control , taking into account the proprioceptive signals, in patients with and without cervical dystonia.

This study is a retrospective chart review to evaluate the doses of botulinum Type A toxins BOTOX® (onabotulinumtoxinA) and Xeomin® (incobotulinumtoxinA) used for the treatment of Cervical Dystonia and Blepharospasm in clinical practice.