Active clinical trials for "Frontotemporal Dementia"

This pilot study will evaluate the effect of direct current (DC) electrical polarization of the brain on language, memory, reaction time, and mood in six patients with frontotemporal dementia (Pick's disease). There is no effective treatment available for cognitive impairment in patients with this condition. DC polarization sends a very weak current between two sponge pads placed on the head. In a previous study in healthy volunteers, DC polarization of the left prefrontal area of the brain increased verbal fluency, memory and attention, and motor reaction time in the study subjects. Patients between 35 and 75 years of age with frontotemporal dementia who have been referred to NINDS's Cognitive Neuroscience Section for an existing protocol will be offered participation in this study. Candidates will be screened with a neurological examination to confirm the diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia. Participants receive 40 minutes of DC polarization or sham polarization in each of two separate sessions. (No current is applied in the sham treatment). During the polarization, the patient rests quietly. Sponge pads that have been soaked in water are put on the left side of the head and above the right eye, and are held in place with elastic netting. Before the polarization and after about 20 minutes of polarization, patients undergo the following tests: Language: Patients must say as many words beginning with certain letters as they can in 90 seconds. Memory: Patients must remember a letter on a computer screen, and when the letter appears again, press the same letter on the keyboard. Reaction time: Patients place pegs on a pegboard. Mood: Patients place a mark on a line ranking how they feel.

This pilot study aims to test clinical and connectivity changes following non-invasive stimulation of disease-specific networks in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). Brain network stimulation will be carried out with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Target networks will be the default mode network (DMN) and salience network (SN). Twenty AD and 20 bvFTD patients will be recruited and assessed with a comprehensive clinical, behavioral and cognitive battery, and 3 Tesla MRI scan (including resting-state functional MRI, arterial spin labeling, diffusion tensor imaging, structural MRI) at three time-points: baseline, after tDCS, and after 6 months. Patients will be randomized to 2 arms: anodal stimulation of the disease-specific network (DMN in AD, SN in bvFTD) or cathodal stimulation of the anti-correlated network (SN in AD, DMN in bvFTD). The intervention will consist of 10 tDCS sessions over two weeks. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples will be collected at baseline for biomarker's assessment; blood samples will be collected at each time-point to assess changes in peripheral inflammatory markers. Blood and CSF collection will be optional. A sample of 20 elderly controls will be included for baseline comparisons.

The purpose of this study is to establish the feasibility of a program of remotely supervised transcranial direct current stimulation (RS-tDCS) paired with language skills practice for people living with the semantic or logopenic variants of primary progressive aphasia (PPA). There are currently no established standard-of-care treatments for PPA. This study will evaluate whether RS-tDCS combined with language skills practice is a feasible study design for individuals with PPA.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by neuritic plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and neuronal cell loss. Amyloid plaques are believed to play an integral role in AD. Elevated levels of Aβ in the brain are correlated with cognitive decline. There are no approved ways to measure amyloid load in humans. Several compounds are under investigation. All of these compounds use radioactive chemical tags for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. The most promising compound is 11C-PIB, or Pittsburgh Compound-B. This compound can be injected and a PET scan performed. This allows doctors to see the amyloid plaques in the brain, and to use this information to look at other types of dementia to see if there are differences and/or similarities in the plaques. We will recruit a total of 30 subjects, 10 from each of the following three diagnostic categories: frontotemporal dementia (FTD), Alzheimer's disease, and normal volunteers. All subjects will be given an [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose or FDG-PET scan (if they haven't had one in the past) and a PIB-PET scan. The overall objective of this project is to study the biodistribution of 11C-PIB using PET imaging in normal elderly volunteers and relevant patient groups.

This project will study intranasal (IN) insulin in Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 12 patients. Study Investigators aim to evaluate the feasibility of the EXAMINER cognitive battery as a cognitive outcome measure in FTD, the ability of the HealthPartners Center for Memory and Aging's ability to sufficiently recruit subjects with FTD, and the safety of IN regular insulin administered 20 IU twice per day in two specific variants of FTD (behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bv-FTD), semantic dementia (SD)) over a 4 week period.

The purpose of this study is to assess the influence of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on speech performance in individuals with primary progressive apraxia of speech.

This is an open-label study to evaluate the performance of a novel tau imaging ligand in up to 36 subjects (12 AD, 3 FTD, 3 PSP, 3 CBS, 3 VCI and 12 HV). Subjects will be recruited from the patient population and healthy volunteers of Taiwan residents. This study protocol requires each subject to complete the following components: screening evaluation, brain MRI and 18F-PM-PBB3 PET imaging up to two sessions. The screening procedures will include neuropsychological assessments, vital signs, ECG, physical examinations and laboratory tests. In addition, 18F-AV-45 PET imaging result will be as a part of inclusion criteria to confirm presence of amyloid deposition in patients with clinically diagnosed probable AD or absence of amyloid deposition in FTD, VCI and HV subjects. Furthermore, 18F-AV-133 PET imaging data will also be as a part of inclusion criteria to confirm the diagnosis of PSP and CBS. All subjects will complete clinical assessments and clinical safety tests to ensure the subject is medically stable to complete the study protocol. The screening procedures will occur within 30 days prior to 18F-PMPBB3 PET imaging.

The primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a neurodegenerative condition characterized by a gradual, irreversible decline of language function (Mesulam, 2001). There are no known treatments for PPA so far. The relentless progression of PPA symptoms eventually leads to a profound impairment in communication ability and, ultimately, to more generalized deficits of cognition. Some cases and small studies reported that Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), one of the non-invasive neuromodulation tech, can be employed to facilitate language production and improve the language ability in patients with PPA. Herein we will explore the tolerance and efficacy of TMS for the treatment of PPA by the randomized controlled trial .Meanwhile the functional MRI tech will be used to investigate the neural network changing in the procedure

The study is designed to determine whether there are clinical features that can be used as biomarkers to predict whether underlying Alzheimer's pathology is the cause of a speech and language based dementia. The primary hypothesis is that the proportion of patients who test positive for beta-amyloid deposition will vary across different speech and language based dementias.

The purpose of this clinical trial is to test whether or not the medication amantadine is effective in reducing behavioral disturbances in patients with frontotemporal dementia.