Active clinical trials for "Muscle Weakness"

The inspiratory muscle training (IMT) is a feasible and safe strategy for patients and athletes, your goal is to recondition the respiratory muscles, providing optimization of lung capacity, either for high performance sport as to support metabolic wear caused by illness. It is generally agreed the positive impact of the application of a TMI Protocol on maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP), this benefit encourages individuals sick since weaning from mechanical ventilation (MV), to the optimization of physical performance in cardiac and / or pulmonary rehabilitation. The TMI is based on the principles: the burden imposed on the muscle; the specificity of training; the reversibility of the gain and muscle atrophy.

Conventional rehabilitation after total hip arthroplasty (THA) does not seem to restore muscular strength or walking speed. Three-5 years after surgery patients are still not fully rehabilitated. This study evaluates the effects of maximal strength training on the muscular strength in leg press and abduction in patients undergoing THA. Aim of the study is to increase the patients physical function through evidence-based rehabilitation in clinical practice, with gradually less supervision.

To determine, in a double blind trial, the effects of creatine supplementation during 12 weeks on muscle mass and function of community living older women subjected to resistance training. Material and methods: Fifty healthy older women will be selected for the study. All participants will be subjected to a progressive resistance training program using elastic bands and weights, consisting in three sessions per week lasting 1 hour. Participant will be randomly allocated in a double blind fashion, to receive creatine 5 g per day or an identical placebo. The training and supplementation period will last 12 weeks. At baseline and at the end of the study, body composition will be measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry, rectus femoris cross sectional height and surface will be measured by ultrasound, quadriceps strength will be measured in a quadriceps table and 12 minutes' walk will be assessed. The main outcome measure will be quadriceps cross sectional height. Expected results: We expect that creatine supplementation will increase rectus femoris height over and above the effect of resistance training.

A double blind randomised placebo controlled parallel trial of the effect of fosinopril, an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, on the quadriceps muscle in 80 COPD patients who have quadriceps weakness. Patients will have a baseline assessment including measures of quadriceps strength and endurance and a quadriceps biopsy. Patients with weakness will be randomised to ACE inhibitor or placebo and re-assessed after three months of treatment. The investigators aim to show that ACE-inhibition will alter the IGF-1/AKT/FoXO/atrogene pathways involved in muscle wasting in COPD.

Myasthenia gravis is a disease that happens because the immune system attacks the nervous system. The damage is caused by antibodies produced by B lymphocytes. These antibodies damage a special part of the muscle that helps transmit impulses from nerves to muscles to allow muscles to work properly. This damage results in symptoms of myasthenia gravis. Participants are being asked to participate in this research study because their myasthenia gravis has either failed to respond to treatments commonly used in the disease, or they have had bad side-effects from such treatments. This is a research study of a drug called Rituximab. Rituximab, also called Rituxan, is a mouse antibody that has been changed to make it similar to a human antibody. Antibodies are proteins that can protect the body from foreign invaders, such as bacteria and viruses, by binding to substances called antigens. Rituxan works by binding to a protein, called the CD20 protein. Rituxan helps to destroy white blood cells that produce antibodies in the body, called B-lymphocytes. It is a treatment given through a vein in the participant's arm over a period of approximately 4-6 hours. It has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in patients with a form of cancer of the lymph glands called Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL). Rituximab is not approved for their myasthenia gravis. Treatment with Rituximab is being tried in this research study because Rituximab decreases B lymphocytes. There is preliminary evidence that Rituximab helps some patients with chronic and otherwise difficult to treat myasthenia gravis.

Intensive care unit (ICU) hospitalization saves lives but often does so at a high personal cost to ICU survivors who frequently experience significant cognitive impairment and an array of physical and functional disabilities that limit their recovery and quality of life. While the problems experienced by these patients are likely amenable to rehabilitation, few ICU survivors receive focused rehabilitation following hospital discharge. The purpose of this study is to initiate and test the feasibility of a complex intervention incorporating a cognitive, physical, and functional rehabilitation program at the time of hospital discharge and implement this 12 week program using in-home visits and tele-technology. We hypothesize that this interdisciplinary rehabilitation program, initiated at hospital discharge and implemented using in-home visits and tele-technology, will result in improved recovery of neuropsychological and physical performance and overall functional status.

Veterans are admitted to Veterans Health Administration (VA) Nursing Homes (NH) because impairment in their ability to perform activities of daily living (ADL) overwhelms their support system (family/friends) in the community. The etiologies of this impairment are, in part, due to chronic disease, deconditioning, and immobility. Yet, after admission, NH residents frequently have decreased levels of daily activity compared with their preadmission activity. Our preliminary observations suggest that dependent, frail residents improve in function in response to exercise in a NH setting.

Can participants enhance gluteus maximus recruitment during a single-leg squat test following a neuromuscular training program?

The investigators will determine if administration of HMB (hydroxymethylbutyrate) or EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) will increase diaphragm and limb muscle strength for patients on breathing machines in an intensive care unit. The investigators will first measure the strength of the diaphragm and a limb muscle (the quadriceps)using magnetic stimulators to activate these muscles. Muscle size will be measured by using an ultrasound to measure diaphragm thickness and quadriceps thickness. The investigators will also perform a vastus lateralis muscle biopsy. Patients will then be randomized to receive either placebo (saline 30 ml every 12 hours via the GI tract, EPA (1000 mg given every 12 hours via the GI tract), HMB (1500 mg given every 12 hours via the GI tract), or the combination of EPA (1000 mg given every 12 hours via the GI tract) and HMB (1500 mg given every 12 hours via the GI tract). Drugs will be given for 10 days; at the end of this time (on day 11), strength measurements, ultrasound muscle size measurements, and the vastus lateralis biopsy will be repeated. On day 21 an additional followup set of diaphragm and quadriceps strength and size measurements will be made (the biopsy will not be repeated for this last set of measurements). Patients will be followed clinically and patient outcomes (mortality, duration of mechanical ventilation after study entry) will be recorded.

Physical frailty is an age-related medical syndrome defined by a decline in multiple body systems, thus causing increased vulnerability, even in the face of minor stressors (1) It has been linked to multiple negative health outcomes, including extended length of stay in acute care due to complications, hospital re-admissions, and mortality among older patients. About 10-30% of community-dwelling seniors are considered frail(2) with an additional 40% being at risk for the condition (pre-frailty). By 2030, the number of older adults with frailty is expected to at least double, in parallel to the projected growth of the older segment of the population. Frail seniors consume 3-times more health care resources then their robust counterparts. Thus, the health economic impact of frailty is expected to be enormous and a call to action has been posed. Big data in healthcare provides important opportunities for the identification of frailty among the growing number of older patients. This is relevant as frailty is considered a better predictor of adverse outcomes than chronological age alone. Therefore, several medical specialties have started to assess frailty in cancer patients, heart surgery candidates and potential organ transplant recipients.