Active clinical trials for "Parkinson Disease"

The aim of this study is to determine the fall and balance conditions of Parkinson's patients according to their urinary complaints.

With the global ageing population, neurodegenerative disorders including synucleinopathy are major burdens to patients, carers and society. Synucleinopathy refers to a group of neurodegenerative diseases characterized by abnormal aggregation of alpha-synuclein protein in the central nervous system (CNS). Common examples of synucleinopathy are Parkinson's disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Among all the premotor clinical markers that have been identified, a sleep disorder known as REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is associated with the highest likelihood ratio of developing PD. In addition, it has been shown that almost all RBD patients (over 80%) eventually developed neurodegenerative diseases after 14 years follow-up. Gut microbiota and synucleinopathy In recent years, several key studies have advanced our understanding regarding the roles that brain-gut-microbiota axis plays in the pathogenesis of brain diseases, including PD. It has been shown that gut microbiota is implicated in a series of pathophysiological changes in PD, including motor deficits, microglia activation, and αSyn pathology in mice model with overexpression of αSyn. Furthermore, some microbiotas, such as enterobacteriaceae, have been shown to be positively associated with the severity of PD symptoms, including postural instability and gait difficulty. Limitations in previous studies and knowledge gaps Nonetheless, the answers for several key questions regarding the roles of gut microbiota in the progression of synucleinopathy are still unclear. First, whether these microbiotas found in previous studies are the causes or the effects of PD. For example, medications treating PD may also affect the gut microbiome. Moreover, the microbiota may be affected by a number of factors commonly found in PD, such as constipation per se and diet. In this regard, an influential hypothesis of synucleinopahy was proposed by Braak et al at which the early premotor features including gastro-enterology symptoms, such as constipation and RBD would predate the onset of PD by some years. Thus, it is crucial to compare the microbiota among individuals at different stages of synucleinopathy. In view of slow progression of synucleinopathy and a relatively low prevalence of synucleinopathy in the general population, it is impractical to run a prospective study to examine this research question. Finally, gut microbiota is determined by both genetic and environmental factors. A family cohort design will help to understand the genetic and environmental influences on the association between microbiota and synucleinopathy.

The purpose and main objective of this study is the research of pre-operative and operative predictive factors of short-term (1-year) and long-term (15-years) improvement of quality of life, motor and non-motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease patients who have undergone to bilateral Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation. The hypothesis of the study is that the definition of pre-operative and operative predictive factors could be able to improve the pre-operative prognostic accuracy of outcome and complications after surgery, allowing also a better selection of the most suitable candidates for bilateral Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation. For example, we can suppose that an older age at surgery, elevated axial score, a less preoperative dopa-responsiveness, the presence of mild executive dysfunction at surgery or an unfavourable social status, could negatively influence the short and long term surgery outcome

It has been shown that patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) have impaired kinaesthesia and haptic perception of the upper limbs. In PD patients, these impairments might be involved in the development of hypometria or bradykinesia and may play a role in postural deficits, thereby significantly contributing to the overall disability level. Dedicated conventional or robot-assisted training might improve sensory-motor function in PD patients. In order to provide efficient robot-assisted therapy, robotic devices have to be able to tailor the therapy difficulty to the individual impairment profile of each patient. For difficulty adaptation in robot-assisted therapy, it is important to assess the impairment profiles with the same robotic platform that would be used for therapy, therefore minimizing costs or potential errors coming from the use of different devices. However, up to now, little emphasis has been placed on providing sensory-motor robot-assisted therapy for the upper limbs to persons with PD based on their individual level of impairment. The aim of this study is therefore to evaluate if the assessments of sensory-motor hand function implemented on a robotic device for hand rehabilitation, i.e. the ReHapticKnob, are suitable to measure the impairments of kinaesthesia and haptic perception observed in subjects with Parkinson's disease. If the assessments implemented in the ReHapticKnob are sensitive enough to detect a difference between the sensory-motor function of PD patients and healthy subjects, the device might in the future be used to assess improvements before and after sensory-motor therapy. This is a necessary step before the investigators can use these assessments to tailor the difficulty level of the therapy performed with the ReHapticKnob and to investigate the benefits and impact of such a therapy on the kinaesthetic and haptic impairments of persons with PD.

This study's research is devoted to studying the causes of tremor, and especially essential tremor (ET), which is the most common type of tremor. Previous studies have revealed a link between harmane [HA], a dietary neurotoxin, and ET; these studies now also suggest a link between this toxin and Parkinson's disease (PD), a related tremor disorder. Yet these links are tentative rather than conclusively established; therefore, in this new patient-based proposal, which incorporates investigations spanning two continents (North America and Europe), utilizes several complementary study designs (prospective cohort, case control), and draws on several types of tissue (blood, brain), the investigator's goal is to nail down the links between HA and ET and to further solidify the emerging links between HA and PD.

Retrospective, monocentric, observational study designed to evaluate the effects of Bilateral Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS STN) on Neuropsychiatric fluctuations in Patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD)

The aim of the project is to develop the first alpha-synuclein (a-syn)-specific PET tracer. The research phase will exploit ACI's proprietary MorphomerTM library and extensively optimized screening workflow. Promising PET-tracer candidates will be tested for their ability in detecting a-syn pathology in patients with a range of Parkinsonian conditions with different a-syn levels and distributions, comprising hereditary forms of PD and other synucleinopathies.

Purpose/Goal: To determine if a remote computerized cognitive remediation program (CRT) can stabilize or improve cognitive functioning in a group of patients from the New York Institute of Technology Academic Health Care Center with Parkinson's disease (PD) after three months of intervention. Hypothesis: Patients with PD who present with current cognitive deficits will show improvement in such deficits after three months of participation in a remotely supervised structured Cognitive Remediation Therapy Program (CRT) compared to control subjects with PD who receive treatment as usual. Research design: Pilot study. Prospective randomized treatment and control comparison pre-post study.

Levodopa (LD) is an effective treatment to control symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the response to (the effectiveness) LD changes over time and patients require higher and more frequent LD doses for treatment. The purpose of this study is to identify what reasons or causes might influence the changes in LD effectiveness, particularly if intestinal bacteria contribute to the breakdown of LD in patients with PD. This study is an observational cohort proof-of-concept study that follows PD patients who take PD at high-frequency doses and low-frequency doses. . Each PD patient will have a household healthy control/spouse enrolled into the study. Single patients with no spouse will still be eligible to enroll.

Gait disturbances and movement restrictions occur frequently in Parkinson's disease. Patient-centered monitoring with objective aids in the patient's daily life, supports and promotes therapy decisions made by physicians and patients. Technical, sensor-based monitoring has the potential to generate objective target parameters at any point in time during therapy (patient journey), representing the state of health and its progression, and to make this information available to physicians and patients via telemedical data management. In this study, the gait analysis system "Mobile GaitLab Home 2.0", consisting of sensors for gait data acquisition, a smartphone application for study participants (Mobile GaitLab app) and a web portal for physicians (Mobile GaitLab portal) is used for data collection. The research question is divided into three sub-objectives: First, the study explores and tests how technically generated parameters of sensor-based gait analysis can map the symptom "bradykinesis". The second goal is the explorative investigation of how a tele-health service support with low-threshold access to medical professionals, can be integrated into the care process. The third goal is the implementation evaluation of the technological developments. Here, it is examined to determine the extent to which the implementation of gait data and patient feedback (PROMs) in the patient-centered care process within the framework of clinical decision support contributes to early gait-associated therapy optimization and thus improves the general health of patients and how initial indications of positive care effects for patients can be derived. During a 60-day observation phase, study participants use the gait analysis system, which records their gait pattern throughout the day and collects data via the Mobile GaitLab app. Study participants are asked to perform standardized gait tests in the home environment several times a day, in addition to continuous measurements during the awake phase. Frequency of data collection is controlled by Mobile GaitLab Home 2.0 and can be flexibly adjusted to the study participant's health status and therapy. The Mobile GaitLab app uses questionnaires to record data on gait safety, activity, general well-being, and events relevant to the disease. An evaluation of these data (PROMs) and the results from the gait analyses, are visualized for the study participants via the Mobile GaitLab app.