Active clinical trials for "Hemiplegia"

This study will compare the motor outcomes for five infants with asymmetrical hand function (AHF) who will receive two, three week episodes of standard care separated by a three week episode of mCIMT paired with Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation. The results of this study will inform decisions on the feasibility and efficacy of the treatment for use in a larger study for infants with AHF at risk for unilateral cerebral palsy.

Hemiplegia (weakness or poor muscle function on one side of the body) is a neurological impairment which can occur in children as a result of a brain tumor or related treatment. This impairment can negatively impact the child's functional abilities and movement development, making it difficult for them to play, learn to feed, dress or bathe themselves, and to participate fully in home, daycare, or school environments. Poor movement skills may also impact overall quality of life. Constraint Induced Therapy is a rehabilitation technique which has been found to improve the child's abilities to move their arms following neurological injuries like stroke and traumatic brain injury in both adults and children. The aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of implementing a constraint induced movement therapy program in a small group of children with a brain tumor and hemiplegia. Children who participate in the program may experience improved ability to use their weak arm leading to increased participation in meaningful activity and improved quality of life.

One of the causes of disability in patients suffering from a stroke is postural imbalance. Sensory stimulation improves the postural symmetry of the subject transitorily and they are thought to have an effect on the spatial frame of reference through a sensory recalibration. Studies have shown that sensory stimulation by vibration of neck muscles have an immediate effect on static balance and when walking. The objective of this preliminary study is to test the long-lasting effects of repetitive neck muscle vibrations on postural disturbances in standing position and on spatial frame reference in chronic patients.

This is a feasibility study to alter the Microsoft Kinect software to be used as a rehabilitation tool. The prototype used is still in the early developing stage. The purpose of this research study is to develop a prototype of altered Microsoft Kinect Software and determine its use in improving the function of the study subjects' weaker extremities. The altered software will allow a viewing of the mirror image of the involved limb as it is moved. However, the image that is viewed will reflect normal movement even if the limb cannot move normally. By viewing normal movement of the weaker limbs the "mirror neuron" network in the brain will become activated and will ultimately improve the function of the weaker side.

Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood (AHC) is a rare and severe disease that is in need of effective, and hopefully even curative, therapies. Afflicted patients suffer from severe paralyzing crises, often excruciatingly painful muscle spasms, severe often life threatening epileptic seizures, frequently severe developmental and psychiatric/psychological disabilities and other comorbidities, such as cardiac disturbances. Recent data indicate that AHC genotype is in relation to cardiac repolarization troubles and to cardiac arrhythmias. The primary hypothesis to explore is that there is an association between genotype and cardiac phenotype in AHC.

Cerebral palsy (CP) concerns 2 children out of 1000 in the general population (SCPE 2002). It is the main cause of postural and motor deficits in children. During the past 20 years, the postural deficits exhibited by these children have been attributed to various factors : neuromuscular functions sensory integration muscular-squeletic functions. The common point of all these studies is the existence of immature motor patterns, probably related to an inability to implement more elaborated and adapted motor patterns with respect the task to perform. CP children do not develop the characteristics of the plant grad locomotion. They exhibit a uniform muscular activation with a high level of co-activation. Locomotion is generally characterized by an increase of stretching reflexes at short latencies and by a low level of activation associated to a low modulation of gastrocnemius muscles.. These data also suggest that it is the control of the temporal rather than the spatial parameters of the head which are mainly altered in CP children. Even though static postural control and locomotion are considered as automatic processes, this control requires, however, a significant amount of attentional resources. Within this context, the amount of attentional resources which need to be solicited can provide information on two complementary dimensions. On one hand, on the level of automaticity of postural control and/or locomotion when subjects' attention is oriented toward another task. On the other hand, on the cognitive cost of postural control and/or locomotion, depending on children age, that is, as a function of their level of maturation and of the nature and importance of their sensory-motor deficits. When the amount of required attentional resources is reduced, postural control and/or locomotion is considered as automatic processes with a low cognitive cost. The dual task paradigm in which subjects have to simultaneously process a cognitive (e.g. Stroop task) and a postural or motor task (e.g., standing upright on a force platform) is generally used to investigate these questions. How an appropriate allocation of attention is performed as a function of the cognitive and postural/motor tasks is important in the developmental process of posture and locomotion. It seems to be even more crucial in CP children and more generally in pathology. The main goal of the present project is to investigate the contribution of attentional processes in postural control and locomotion of CP children as compared to control healthy children.

Anosognosia for hemispatial neglect is an intriguing phenomenon characterized by decreased awareness of spatial deficits, common in patients with right hemisphere stroke. However, it has not been examined as extensively as anosognosia for hemiplegia. In this study, we aim to investigate the relationship between the decrease in anosognosia for neglect and the improvement of spatial deficits.

The study is a follow-up study on children with acute flaccid paresis associated with enterovirus D68 infection. Only children living in Europe are eligible. The study aim is to clarify the outcome of the disease and investigate possible clinical correlation with outcome, including initial severity, demographic characteristics, treatment and MRI findings.

The main purpose of this investigation is to evaluate the effect of a lower leg brace on walking efficiency and community walking in people who have weakness in one side of the body caused after a stroke. The evaluation will consist of several tests that will evaluate movement, tightness, balance and sensation in affected leg.

The objective of the current study is to develop and investigate training concepts involving rehabilitation technology, which aim at exploiting the potential for regaining the ability to perform skilled movements by maximizing training intensity and keeping the motivation of patients high. The evaluation focuses on feasibility and cost-benefit analyses