Active clinical trials for "Parkinson Disease"

Parkinson's disease (PD) is one the main neurodegenerative disease with an incidence of about 3% in patients older than 65 years. Anesthesia in PD patients has been focused by several studies for concerning the interactive reaction between anesthetics and anti-Parkinsonian medication or Parkinsonian symptoms. However, our previous experience showed that the patients undergoing pulse generator placement were more prone to be involved in delayed emergence in the recovery room, which had been not reported yet. We speculated that PD patients might be a special population with abnormal pharmacodynamic characters of anesthetics, though no related evidence could be found to support this hypothesis. Therefore, in this project we investigated whether remifentanl requirement to inhibit patients' response to trachea intubation and skin insertion in PD patients undergoing DBS and pulse generator placement was different from non-PD patients undergoing intracranial surgery for reasons other than PD.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive retinal imaging technology that can provide high-resolution cross-sectional images of the peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and measure its thickness. A reduction of the RNFL thickness has been detected in several neurodegenerative diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, CADASIL and Alzheimer's disease. Different studies have reported RNFL changes also in Parkinson's disease (PD),a common neurodegenerative disease characterized by motor dysfunctions, originally described by James Parkinson in 1817. PD is characterized by selective dopaminergic neuronal cells loss, which may correlate with RNFL thinning. Previous studies on this subject, however, reported contradicting results. Some investigations reported reductions of the RNFL thickness while others did not. In the present study, in order to determine whether RNFL thickness is reduced in PD patients, we performed a meta-analysis and systematically evaluated RNFL thickness measurements with OCT in a series of PD patients and in the healthy control groups.

There is a growing trend in functional neurosurgery toward direct anatomical targeting for deep brain stimulation (DBS). This study describes a method and reports the initial experience placing DBS electrodes under general anesthesia without the use of microelectrode recordings (MER), using a portable head CT scanner to verify accuracy intra-operatively.

Decreased muscle strength has been reported to be a factor contributing to increased incidences of falling in the elderly patients causing fractures, joint dislocations, severe soft tissue lesions and head trauma. Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients often complain of weakness and it has been reported that they have reduced muscle strength, decreased rate of force development, impaired ability to maintain constant force, and increased muscle coactivation during balance perturbation tasks. The specific cause of this weakness is not known, and in this study the investigators have analyzed and measured isokinetic muscle strength in PD patients to clarify this issue. The investigators have compared the data obtained with those of age-matched controls.

This study is implemented to identify factors having an impact on improvement or exacerbation of non-motor symptoms, to provide information contributing to development of medical care in this field and improvement of patients' QOL, and to clarify the association between the use of istradefylline and non-motor symptoms or QOL.

The exact cause of PD remains unknown, but current theories suggest that it results from a combination of hereditary or genetic factors (i.e. family traits ) and exposure to unknown substances in the environment. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether toxins produced by bacteria that live within the nasal canal (nose) and the intestines of people with PD might have a role in causing the disease. The investigators in this study would like to look at the types of bacteria that live in the nasal canals and intestines of PD subjects and compare them with those of subjects who do not have PD.

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) often display symptoms, such as constipation, due to denervation of the cholinergic nerves in the gut. It has been hypothesized that PD initiates in the gut years prior to diagnosis. To gain a detailed understanding of the early stages of PD, techniques for quantification of cholinergic nerves are needed. The PET tracer 18F-FEOBV binds specifically to the vesicular acetylcholine transporter, situated in presynaptic cholinergic nerve terminals. The investigators will investigate 18F-FEOBV uptake in the brain and internal organs of 15 patients with moderate-stage PD and compare to 15 healthy controls. Furthermore, findings are correlated to validated clinical tests of the autonomic nervous system. The aim is to validate 18F-FEOBV PET/CT as a clinical imaging modality to diagnose parasympathetic denervation in PD.

Difficulty in turning is common after Parkinson's Disease. Patients with Parkinson's Disease take a greater number of steps, longer duration, narrower base of support in turning. Thus, turning ability is systematically investigated in Parkinson's Disease. The aim of this study to invastigate reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the timed 360° turn test in Patients with Parkinson's Disease.

The brain networks controlling movement are complex, involving multiple areas of the brain. Some neurological diseases, like Parkinson's disease, cause abnormalities in the brain networks. Deep brain stimulation is a treatment that is used to treat these types of neurological diseases. Through this research, the investigators will take advantage of the unique opportunity provided by awake deep brain stimulation surgery to learn more about how the brain functions in a diseased state and how deep brain stimulation changes these networks. This study aims to enroll up to 75 subjects over a period of 2.5 years. Those who participate in the study will spend up to 40 minutes during their deep brain stimulation surgery during which researchers will record signals from deep structures within the brain as well as the surface of the brain using electrodes that are temporarily placed for research purposes. During the study, researchers will record signals while subjects perform three different tasks, in some cases while the brain is stimulated. Study participation is limited to the intraoperative environment with no additional study visits required.

Reading disorders in Parkinson's Disease (PD) are poorly evaluated due to the lack of validated tests to screen for them. They are often attributed to hand tremors associated with the disease. In this study, the investigating team evaluated the "alouette test" validated for dyslexia screening, in PD by comparing the results to healthy patients.