Active clinical trials for "Myoclonus"

The purpose of this study is to reduce the symptoms of OMS by testing rituximab (Rituxan®), to remove B lymphocytes that make antibodies and trigger brain inflammation. Evidence suggests that autoimmune brain inflammation causes the symptoms of OMS. This study of blood and spinal fluid intends to find out what effect rituximab has on OMS and on the spinal fluid B-cells. Rituximab targets and destroys B-cells, which make antibodies that can attack the brain and cause may OMS. It is infused through a vein over a period of several hours. Rituximab has been used widely and studied extensively since its approval in 1997 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for non-Hodgkin's B-cell Lymphoma (NHL). Today, more than 300,000 patients have received rituximab, and it is part of more than 200 completed, ongoing, or planned clinical trials. Rituximab is not FDA-approved for OMS.

Myoclonus is a condition related to epilepsy of involuntary twitching or jerking of the limbs. The purpose of this study is to determine if stimulation of the brain with magnetic pulses can decrease myoclonus. Researchers believe that this may be possible because in studies on normal volunteers, magnetic stimulation made areas of the brain difficult to activate for several minutes. In addition, early studies on patients with myoclonus have shown magnetic stimulation to be effective at decreasing involuntary movements. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive technique that can be used to stimulate brain activity and gather information about brain function. It is very useful when studying the areas of the brain and spinal cord related to motor activity (motor cortex and corticospinal tract). Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) involves the placement of coil of wire (electromagnet) on the patient's scalp and rapidly turning on and off the electrical current. The changing magnetic field produces weak electrical currents in the brain near the coil. This permits non-invasive, relatively localized stimulation of the surface of the brain (cerebral cortex). The effect of magnetic stimulation varies, depending upon the location, intensity and frequency of the magnetic pulses. Researchers plan to use rTMS for 10 days on patients participating in the study. The 10 day period will be broken into 5 days of active repetitive magnetic stimulation and 5 days of placebo "ineffective" stimulation. At the end of the 10 day period, if the results show that rTMS was beneficial, patients may undergo an additional 5 days of active rTMS.

Emerging evidence suggests that sleep-related disturbances such as sleep-disordered breathing (e.g. sleep apnea), sleep fragmentation, abnormal sleep architecture, and periodic limb movements (PLMs) are closely linked with adverse health outcomes such as cardiovascular events, hospital admissions and mortality. However, data supporting some of these associations is inconclusive. The Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre sleep clinic has collected a detailed set of physiological variables from adults who underwent daytime and overnight sleep studies at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre Sleep Laboratory from 2004 till present. Data exists on more than 5,000 subjects with various disturbances of sleep. The investigators plan to link the Sunnybrook Sleep Laboratory data with various health administrative databases based at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). The primary objective of this study is to determine whether the presence of various findings on polysomnography (e.g. obstructive sleep apnea, sleep structure / fragmentation, physiological characteristics such as arousals and periodic limb movements in sleep) are associated with different adverse health outcomes such as cardiovascular events, cancer, depression, hospital admissions, emergency department visits and mortality.

This study is a randomized control trial and it was conducted to compare the effectiveness of pretreatment with lignocaine versus midazolam on the frequency of myoclonus associated with etomidate induction. This was conducted in Holy Family Hospital Rawalpindi in a period of 6 months.

Background: Myoclonus dystonia (DYT-SGCE) is characterized by myoclonus and dystonia. Such condition is associated with a high prevalence of psychiatric symptoms which are part of the phenotype. The mechanisms underlying these non-motor symptoms are still poorly understood. Objective: To investigate the neural correlates of cognition and emotion in DYT-SGCE. Design: Participants will have 1 - 2 visits at the clinical center. The total participation time is less than 24 hours. Participants will have a medical interview and a neurological exam. They may give a urine sample before MRI. Participants will have a short neuropsychologic and psychiatric interviews. Participants will have MRI scans. They will do small tasks or be asked to imagine things during the scanning.

To evaluate the effect of pre-injection of lidocaine on myoclonus induced by induction with etomidate during general anesthesia in elderly patients

By observing the difference of plasma homovanillic acid concentrations and brain electrical consciousness monitoring Narcotrend index, study the possible mechanism of influencing Etomidate induced myoclonus with Dexmedetomidine pretreatment during general anesthesia induction period.

This study was conducted on a series of patients with myoclonus to identify the electrophysiological characteristics and the anatomical classification of myoclonus of different causes.

The purpose of this study is to determine if cytokines, inflammatory mediators, are increased in spinal fluid and blood, correlate with disease activity, and could serve as biomarkers or therapeutic targets in children with opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome (OMS), an autoimmune complication of the tumor neuroblastoma.

The purpose of this protocol is to identify families with inherited neurologic conditions, especially movement disorders, to evaluate affected and unaffected individuals clinically, and to obtain blood samples for genetic analysis.