Active clinical trials for "Parkinson Disease"

To study associate factor of Noctural Parkinson's Disease Symptoms and quality of life in Parkinson's disease patients and caregivers.

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the perception of pain associated with Parkinson´s Disease in patients who receive Neupro® for the first time.

A simple, painless and reliable method to detect Parkinson's disease at an early stage is very important to patients, doctors and researchers. Doctors want to help patients early, and scientists want to select patients for their research who will help in development of better drugs. We hope that the changes in electrical activity of hand muscles during handwriting will help in early detection of this disease.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the feasibility of using the commercially available Parkinson's KinetiGraph Data Logger (PKG) to quantitatively assess motor fluctuations in Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients. A reliable and objective assessment of motor fluctuations would support the general neurologists in the referral of PD patients to the Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgical centers and facilitate the DBS eligibility evaluation of PD patients usually done by the DBS specialists at the DBS surgical centers. As part of the routine clinical practice, PD patients are referred to the DBS surgical center (clinical site) to optimize their PD treatment and potentially receive a DBS therapy, and the Principal Investigator (PI), a DBS specialist, assesses their DBS eligibility following published expert evaluation criteria and assigns the patient to one of the following two groups (PI assessment): DBS ready, if the patient presents severe motor fluctuations and/or clear dyskinesia history. DBS not-ready, if the patient presents neither severe motor fluctuations, nor clear dyskinesia history. As part of routine clinical practice, the PKG responsible physician will provide the patient with the PKG to be worn for 6 to 10 days. Based on the Global Kinetics Corporation (GKC) algorithm applied on the data recorded by the PKG, a GKC representative assigned the patients to one of the above mentioned groups: DBS ready or DBS not-ready. The primary objective is to evaluate whether the GKC algorithm can differentiate DBS ready from DBS not-ready patients as assessed during the visit at the clinical site by the DBS specialist. The primary endpoint is therefore the percentage of agreement between the PI assessment and the GKC assessment (DBS ready or DBS not-ready) about the DBS eligibility of the PD patients.

Patients with tremor may have varying degrees of tremor at different times. The amplitude and frequency of tremor may change. The investigators observational study is intended to document this tremor.

A collimator is an accessory to a SPECT/CT scanner. It can be compared to a camera lens or filter that enhances or improves photos. The prototype collimators are able to magnify target organs about four times compared to the current collimators. In this study we are validating a new collimator design, which will allow for quantitative measurement of dopamine receptors within the brain, not previously performed using a single photon gamma camera.

The investigators prospectively enrolled 64 early PD patients (less than 3 years after the first symptom) in order to prospectively assess the natural history of non-dopaminergic symptoms.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether people with Parkinson's disease (PD) experience reduced perception of respiratory resistive loads versus healthy adults in the same age group. Further, the study will determine whether people with PD and trouble swallowing experience even more reduction of their perception of a respiratory resistive load.

In this investigator-initiated study, we will compare changes in brain cognitive biomarkers assessed by diffusion tensor imaging over 2.5 years among 12 patients with Idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD) receiving rasagiline, 20 IPD patients not receiving MAO-B inhibitors and 25 age-matched healthy controls. Will also compare the changes in Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores and plasma brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) with changes in brain cognitive biomarkers in all IPD patients and HC over 2.5 years.

The genotype-phenotype correlation in patients with Parkinson's disease with specific mutations in the glucocerebrosidase gene (Gaucher gene) is known from own clinical experiences as well as from case reports in the literature. The epidemiological study will determine the frequency of heterozygous mutations in the glucocerebrosidase gene and correlate to the clinical onset and development by measuring and documenting severity of symptoms (e.g. cognitive deficits, L-dopa responsiveness, depression) in clinically well-characterized Parkinson's patients.