Active clinical trials for "Essential Tremor"

This research involves retrospective and prospective studies for clinical validation of a DystoniaNet deep learning platform for the diagnosis of isolated dystonia.

Clinical study to demonstrate an at least equivalent performance of a new PET molecular Imaging radiopharmaceutical named [18F] LBT-999 in brain imaging compared to the SPECT reference method named [123I]-FP-CIT to establish the differential diagnosis between Parkinson's Disease and Essential Tremor.

The purpose of this study is to measure the effects of non-regular temporal patterns of deep brain stimulation (DBS) on motor symptoms and neural activity in persons with Parkinson's disease (PD), essential tremor (ET) or multiple sclerosis (MS). These data will guide the design of novel stimulation patterns that may lead to more effective and reliable treatment with DBS. These data will also enable evaluation of current hypotheses on the mechanisms of action of DBS. Improving our understanding of the mechanisms of action of DBS may lead to full development of DBS as a treatment for Parkinson's disease and may lead to future applications of DBS.

This is a 6-week exploratory clinical study, designed to test whether treatment with peroneal electrical trans-cutaneous stimulation can have a beneficial effects on symptoms associated with Parkinson's diseases and essential tremor.

The human brain presents outstanding challenges to science and medicine. Brain function and structure span broad spatial scales (from single neurons to brain-wide networks) as well as temporal scales (from milliseconds to years). Currently, none of the tools available for studying the brain can fully capture its structure and function across these diverse scales - "the neuroimaging puzzle". This poses crucial limitations to understanding how the brain works, and how it is affected by numerous diseases. The central goal of this project is to expand currently available tools for non-invasive human brain imaging, to bridge critical gaps in the neuroimaging puzzle. New methodologies will be developed, focused on ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging (UHF MRI) and its combination with electroencephalography (EEG). New contrast mechanisms and technological advances enabled by UHF MRI and EEG will be explored to allow unprecedented views into the microstructure of brain regions like the thalamus, and to capture the activity of large-scale neuronal networks in the brain with high sensitivity, temporal and spatial specificity. These advances will be directly applied to address open questions in the diagnosis and treatment of essential tremor, and psychosis. In general, improved brain imaging techniques are critical for a deeper understanding of how the brain works, and to detect and characterize diseases more effectively, thereby improving clinical management and leading to a healthier population. The non-invasive characterization and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases like tremor is particularly relevant to aging modern societies.

The purpose of this study is to elucidate the structural connectivity of the dentato-rubro-thalamic tract (DRTt) and to detect functional network changes due to DRTt stimulation

The purpose of this study is to determine the changes in quality of life and degree of tremor for patients with essential tremor or Parkinsonian tremor who are treated by stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). This is a questionnaire-based study. Please see Detailed Description below for more information.

Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is an effective therapy for patients with medically refractory essential tremor. However, DBS programming is not standardized and multiple clinic visits are frequently required to adequately control symptoms. The investigators aim to longitudinally record brain signals from patients using a novel neurostimulator that can record brain signals. The investigators will correlate brain signals to clinical severity scores to identify pathological rhythms in the absence of DBS, and we will study the effects of DBS on these signals in order to guide clinical programming.

Radiosurgical thalamotomy on GammaKnife has been shown to be effective in the management of tremors. However, several teams describe a significant risk of severe neurological complications. In addition, fitting the invasive frame and the need to travel to GammKnife centers often limit access to treatment in this population of elderly patients. Linear accelerators have greatly improved their precision, now reaching that of GammaKnife. A possible alternative is therefore to treat patients on linear accelerators, without an invasive frame. The objective of the FRACTHAL study is to assess the feasibility and safety of treatment of essential and / or parkinsonian tremor by fractional radiosurgical thalamotomy on a linear accelerator. The main hypothesis of the FRACTHAL study is based on the fact that dividing the dose into 3 sessions will both protect healthy tissue around the target while maintaining therapeutic efficacy on the treatment target.

The brain networks controlling movement are complex, involving multiple areas of the brain. Some neurological disorders, like Parkinson's disease (PD) and essential tremor (ET), cause abnormalities in these brain networks. Deep brain stimulation is a treatment that is used to treat these types of neurological diseases and is thought to help patients by modulating brain networks responsible for movement. Levodopa medication is also used to modulate this brain networks in patients with PD. The overall objective is to develop a unified theory of basal ganglia thalamocortical (BGTC) circuit dynamics that accounts for disease symptomatology, movement, and their inter-relationship. The underlying hypothesis, is that the rigidity and bradykinesia of PD are fundamentally related to excessive functional coupling across nodes in the BGTC motor circuit impeding effective information flow. In this research, the investigator will take advantage of the unique opportunity provided by awake deep brain stimulation surgery to learn more about how the brain functions in a diseased state and how deep brain stimulation changes these networks to make movement more normal. The investigator will simultaneously assess cortical and subcortical electrophysiology in relation to clinical symptoms and behavioral measures and in response to deep brain stimulation, cortical stimulation, and pharmacologic therapy in patients undergoing Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) implantation surgery.