Active clinical trials for "Parkinson Disease"

The study's aim is to better understand motivation and value-based decision making in Parkinson's patients through neurophysiology using Medtronic's Percept PC DBS device.

This is an imaging study designed to illuminate the function of the cholinergic system and its association with cognitive skills in people with Parkinson's disease. The hypothesis of this study is that there will be an association between cholinergic terminal density, sex hormones, and cognitive functioning. Participants will receive a PET and MRI scan along with a battery of neurocognitive tests at baseline and again at 18 months follow-up. Hormone levels will be measured at baseline.

This is a single-center, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to see if acupuncture can safely and effectively manage anxiety in Parkinson's Disease. Eligible subjects will receive either real or sham acupuncture THREE times weekly for a total of SIX weeks.

Postural and balance disorders are common in neurological disorders. They are often associated with reduced mobility and fear of falling, which strongly limit independent activities of daily living (ADL), compromise the quality of life and reduce social participation. Here the investigators apply an existing software solution to: 1) obtain biomarkers of gait deficits in 5 neurological conditions, 2) develop an automatic procedure supporting clinicians in the early identification of patients at high risk of falling as to tailor rehabilitation treatment; 3) longitudinally assess these patients to test the efficacy of rehabilitation. High-density electroencephalography (EEG), and inertial sensors located at lower limbs and at upper body levels will be used to extract the most appropriate indexes during motor tasks. The ultimate goal is to develop cost-effective treatment procedures to prevent recurrent falls and fall-related injuries and favour the reintegration of the patient into everyday activities. The first hypothesis of this study is that clinical professionals (e.g., medical doctors and rehabilitative staff) would strongly benefit from the possibility to rely on quantitative, reliable and reproducible information about patients motor deficits. This piece of information can be nowadays readily available through miniaturized wearable technology and its information content can be effectively conveyed thanks to ad hoc software solution, like the A.r.i.s.e. software. The second hypothesis of the present study is that early identification of patients at high risk of dependence and the subsequent application of personalized treatment would allow for cost-effective treatment procedures to favor the autonomy into everyday activities. The results of this project could represent a valuable support in the clinical reasoning and decision-making process.

The overarching aim is to determine the benefits of Parkinson-specific exercise programs and general exercise patterns on physical function and disease-related quality of life among people with Parkinson Disease (PD). The significance of this project is that millions of individuals experience adverse consequences of PD and there is strong evidence that structured exercise programs have beneficial effects on motor function and PD-related quality of life. Participation in this study involves online surveys upon enrollment (i.e., baseline) and at 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 1 year, and 2 years.

This study aims to better understand how people with Parkinson's control reaching movements. Specifically, we are asking how these individuals respond to different environmental perturbations. Testing includes reaching movements made within a virtual reality set-up.

Walking on a split-belt treadmill (each of the two belts running at a different speed) imposes an asymmetrical gait, mimicking limping that has been observed in various pathologic conditions. This walking modality has been proposed as an experimental paradigm to investigate the flexibility of the neural control of gait and as a form of therapeutic exercise for hemi-paretic patients. However, the scarcity of dynamic investigations both for segmental aspects and for the entire body system, represented by the centre of mass, challenges the validity of the available findings on split gait. Compared with overground gait in hemiplegia, split gait entails an opposite spatial and dynamic asymmetry. The faster leg mimics the paretic limb temporally, but the unimpaired limb from the spatial and dynamic point of view. These differences suggest that a partial shift in perspective may help to clarify the potential of the split gait as a rehabilitation tool. The aim of the present study is to investigate the dynamic asymmetries of lower limbs in adults with unilateral motor impairments (e.g. hemiplegia post-stroke, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, unilateral amputation, surgical orthopedic interventions) during adaptation to gait on a split-belt treadmill. The sagittal power provided by the ankle and the total mechanical energy of the centre of mass will be thoroughly studied. The time course of phenomena both during gait when the belts are running at different speed and when the belts are set back to the same speed (i.e. the after-effect) will be investigated. A greater dynamic symmetry between the lower limbs is expected after split gait. The question whether this symmetry will occur when the pathological limb is on the faster or the lower belt will be disclosed. Some alterations of the motion of the centre of mass during split gait are also expected.

Converging evidence from the literature suggests that digestive inflammation may play a role in the development of Parkinson's disease (PD). The investigators showed in the laboratory in a pilot study that PD patients have digestive inflammation and that the level of inflammation was inversely related to the length of the disease course. This digestive inflammation could be at the origin of an increased intestinal permeability in a subpopulation of parkinsonian patients, cause or consequence of modifications of the intestinal microbiota, thus offering a potential portal of entry for a pathogen according to Braak's theory. To opponents of this theory, it could also reflect the spread of inflammation from the Central nervous System to the Enteral Nervous System (ENS), via the brain-gut axis. Investigators' hypothesis is that digestive inflammation occurs very early in Parkinson's disease and that it is associated with hyperpermeability of the intestinal epithelial barrier and a change in the intestinal microbiota composition. The investigators propose to study the inflammation markers in the ENS of patients with a pre-motor form of PD (idiopathic Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder, n = 20), early-stage PD (<5 years, without dopatherapy, n = 20), more advanced PD (> 5 years, n = 20) and control subjects (n = 20), on colonic biopsies taken during a rectosigmoidoscopy or a coloscopy. Intestinal permeability will be measured by ex-vivo techniques (in a Ussing chamber), the composition of the microbiota will be established by sequencing 16s RNA and the lesional load of phosphorylated alpha-synuclein will be evaluated by immunohistochemistry. All of these parameters will be correlated with clinical data on the severity of PD: duration of development, age, total Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) motor score and axial sub-score, cognitive tests (Montreal Cognitive Assessment, MoCA), existence of a probable idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder (REM Sleep Behavior Disorder Screening Questionnaire RBDSQ), olfactory tests, complaint of dysautonomia (SCales for Outcomes in Parkinson's disease - autonomic dysfunction, SCOPA-Aut). The analysis of inflammation markers, the intestinal barrier and the microbiota could be a first step making it possible to formulate physiopathological hypotheses on the development of PD, to propose predictive biomarkers of the disease and its severity and to design early interventions in the hope of modifying the evolutionary course of the pathological process.

This is a Phase II, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, crossover study to evaluate the effect of multiple oral doses of CST-103 in the presence of CST-107 on Freezing of Gait (FOG) symptoms in subjects with Parkinson's Disease (PD).

With the increase in life expectancy of our population due to advancement of medical diagnosis and treatments, the incidence of age dependent neurodegenerative diseases increased, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), parkinsonian syndromes (PS), small vessel disease (SVD) and motor neuron disease (MND). In spite of the progress of knowing the pathogenesis of various neurodegenerative diseases at molecular and genetic level, they are still very incompletely understood and often cause diagnostic and therapeutic challenges to physicians. Due to the overlapping presentation and similar brain pathology, especially in the early stage of the diseases, it is difficult to differentiate idiopathic Parkinson's disease (iPD) from atypical parkinsonian syndromes, such as multiple system atrophy (MSA) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Similarly, distinguishing AD from other dementia syndromes including frontotemporal dementia (FTD), dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB), corticobasal degeneration (CBD) and vascular dementia can be difficult. It is necessary to develop accurate and comprehensive diagnostic tests to properly prognosticate the diseases, start treatments in early stage of the diseases and maximize the accuracy of drug trials for more effective preventive and therapeutic measures for these neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, the registry aims to generate a large database of cognitive, behavioral, lifestyle and psychological information of the subjects who suffered from neurodegenerative diseases, as well as to examine the genetic basis of neurodegenerative diseases to help decode the pathogenic mechanisms of the diseases. The registry may provide important information to understand symptom development of the neurodegenerative diseases, in which may help physicians to diagnose the diseases more accurately and provide better treatment plans.