Active clinical trials for "Motor Neuron Disease"

The investigators want to develop a brain-computer interface (BCI) that will eventually allow people who are completely paralyzed to independently control the tilt feature on their power wheelchairs. This study will allow healthy volunteers to test the feasibility and accuracy of controlling a BCI using only their brain signals while seated in a tilting wheelchair.

Trials evaluating new therapies for stopping or slowing the progression of ALS depend critically upon the use of outcome measures to assess whether a potential treatment is effective. The more effective an outcome measure, the fewer patients need to be enrolled and the shorter the trial. Many outcome measures have been used over the years, including strength assessments, breathing tests, functional status surveys, and nerve testing, but all are far from ideal. A new method, called electrical impedance myography (EIM) appears to be especially promising in that it provides very consistent data from one testing session to the next, is sensitive to the muscle deterioration that occurs in ALS, and is entirely painless and non-invasive. In this study, investigators from multiple institutions plan to compare several different outcome measures, including EIM, in approximately 120 ALS patients, with each patient being followed for a period of one year. All of these measures will be compared to one another and an assessment of their ability to detect disease progression made. Our goal will be to determine whether EIM can serve as a valuable new outcome measure, ultimately leading to substantially faster, more effective ALS trials requiring fewer patients.

Recent evidence implicates abnormalities of autonomic function in ALS including problems with gastrointestinal (GI) motility. GI complaints reported by ALS patients such as constipation, diffuse abdominal pain, and a feeling of fullness or nausea may be attributed to autonomic involvement. Toepfer et al. found delayed gastric emptying in most ALS patients, indicating autonomic dysfunction (Gastrointestinal dysfunction in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Other Motor Neuron Disord 1999; 1:15-19). The same authors also reported markedly prolonged colon transit time in ALS (Toepfer et al: Delayed colonic transit times in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis assessed with radio-opaque markers. Eur J Med Res 1997; 2:473-476). The present study will investigate the GI transit time in a large cohort of patients and controls using a noninvasive technique that measure hydrogen gas production with the digestion of lactulose in a measured substrate load presented to the bowel.

New technologies are giving people with motor disabilities alternative communication and control channels. The investigators are interested in using the Cyberlink Control System as a hands free means to access a computer for people with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The goal of this project is to determine whether this device is a practical and realistic means for ALS patients to communicate with only the use of facial muscle, brainwave, and eye movements. The benefit of this study may be of substantial value to many people with severe motor impairment. Additionally, it is hoped that some of the study subjects may benefit by incorporating hands-free computer use into their daily lives. This study is intended to evaluate the effectiveness of the cyberlink as a tool for daily communication compared to the standard manual letter board.

The purpose of this research is to develop tools enable people who are paralyzed to operate technology and access computers. These tools are called brain computer interfaces (BCIs). BCIs would let a person use brain signals to operate technology.

Neuroinflammation, characterized in particular by microglia activation, is an essential component of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) pathogenesis. Translocator Protein (TSPO) is recognized as a specific and sensitive biomarker of neuroinflammation, reflecting disease activity. An experimental radiopharmaceutical specific of TSPO expression, namely [18F]DPA714, allow to quantify this microglial activation using Positon Emission Tomography (PET) imaging. The purpose of this study is to longitudinally correlate the spatial distribution of neuroinflammation with the pro- or anti-inflammatory state of activated microglia cells in ALS, in order to evaluate neurotoxic or neuroprotective microglia activity, by complementary approaches in 20 ALS patients: in vitro: measuring concentrations of several pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines secreted by microglial cells in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). in vivo: [18F]DPA714 PET imaging. These assays will be performed in the framework of the clinical follow-up of ALS patients, at the diagnosis of ALS disease and 6 months latter.

The goal of this project is to determine whether this device is a practical and realistic means for ALS patients to operate their computers with only the use of facial, brainwave, and eye movements. This study is intended to evaluate both the complexity of the system and the degree to which complications of ALS (such as severity of involuntary movements) may interfere with the use of cyberlink.

In order to streamline disease research in ALS and other motor neuron diseases, we have joined a consortium of clinical centers (Hershey and University of Pittsburgh) who will collaborate on clinical and basic research projects. As part of this collaboration, de-identified clinical data from subjects at each institution will be entered into a joint database kindly provided and maintained by the ALS Hope Foundation. This database is password protected and contains only de-identified information. In addition to clinical data, any research specimens that are available through IRB approved tissue collections will be linked to the subject so that the collaborating investigators can share samples and have the maximum information. This will enhance the usefulness of each specimen. Once established, the database will provide a resource in which clinical data on a large number of patients along with tissue (blood, urine, muscle, csf, and autopsy) samples will be readily available. This will expedite research by circumventing the delays in collecting specimens prospectively and increase the number of specimens available by allowing the collaborating researchers access to each others specimens. In each case there will be a formal request placed to use specimens that are at the other institutions. These specimens will be used for research in the ALS Center of Hope at the Drexel University College of Medicine and shared with outside investigators with valid IRB approved protocols.

This is a study of the expression of nogo and reticulon genes in the skeletal muscle of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

The purpose of this study is : To assess the ALS patient's satisfaction related to a hospital stay on the neurology floor of Hahnemann Hospital. To compare the reported satisfaction of those individuals who stayed in a standard hospital room with those who stayed in Room 1455. Room 1455 is a room specifically set up with assistive technology related to environmental controls for individuals with disabilities. To look at frequency of use of the various pieces of adaptive equipment.