Active clinical trials for "Poliomyelitis"

The Purpose of this study is to assess the seroconversion using inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) and oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) sequential schedule in pilot areas where IPV was phased introduced into national immunization program (NIP) in China.

To evaluate and standardize umbilical cord specimen collection and laboratory procedures to evaluate cellular and serological immune responses in neonates and young infants

OBJECTIVE: Many persons who survive poliomyelitis develop pain, weakness, and fatigue many decades later. It is not known why some persons develop this syndrome and others do not. One possibility is that polio caused subclinical damage to the motor cortex. Autopsies in some polio patients have found damage to the brainstem and motor cortex as well as to spinal motor neurons. Alternatively, polio may have spared the motor cortex, but the cortex reorganized in different ways to compensate for the loss of spinal motor neurons. This study will first assess the integrity of central motor pathways in polio survivors with and without postpolio syndrome. The second goal will be to investigate differences in the intracortical mechanisms for controlling muscles affected and unaffected by polio. STUDY POPULATION: 60 patients who survived polio in childhood. Only patients with an unequivocal history of polio will be referred to this study. Half of the patients will have the post-polio syndrome. 30 normal volunteers, aged 21-75. DESIGN: Patients will be screened at the collaborating institution, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, which will also perform sensory evoked potential testing and MRI. At NIH, motor evoked potentials will be elicited from all four limbs using transcranial magnetic stimulation to assess central motor conduction time and threshold. Intracortical facilitation will be used to assess using paired-pulse magnetic stimulation. Two muscles will be tested in each patient, one affected by polio and one unaffected by polio. In the affected muscle, intracortical facilitation will be assessed again after exercises it until it fatigues. OUTCOME PARAMETERS: Cortical thresholds and central motor conduction times to all four limbs will be measured in patients and compared to normal subjects. The mean intracortical facilitation at rest will be compared in affected and unaffected muscles in polio patients with and without post-polio syndrome.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the long term immunogenicity produced in children by the investigational hexavalent vaccine (DTaP-IPV-Hep B-PRP-T) given in Study A3L15 (NCT 00362336). Primary Objective: To describe the antibody long term persistence at 3.5 and 4.5 years of age following a 3 dose primary series vaccination of either DTaP-IPV-Hep B-PRP-T or CombAct-Hib™ + Oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) + Engerix™ B vaccination at 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age and a booster vaccination of DTaP-IPV-Hep B-PRP-T or CombAct-Hib™ + OPV at 15-18 months

Post-Poliomyelitis Syndrome (PPS) is the term describing the new problems affecting polio survivors many years after recovery from paralytic polio. Among the symptoms, fatigue is one of the most frequent and debilitating. In addition to physical incapacitation, the fatigue of PPS also affects mental function. The term "brain fatigue" is usually used by patients to express problems on the areas of attention, concentration, memory and clear thinking. Unfortunately, little is known about cognitive fatigue of PPS patients. This study is meant to examine if mental impairment is present in PPS patients and, if so, how it interferes on the self-function of patients. Patients will undergo an interview, clinical and neurological evaluation, and a battery of screening laboratory tests to make sure they are eligible for the study. Patients who qualify will undergo neuropsychometric tests in order to assay performance in the main areas of cognitive functioning. Through this organized approach we expect to be able to determine if mental fatigue is a significant problem affecting polio survivors, what areas are most affected, and how it may interfere with daily living.

This is a longitudinal, observational study with the aims of comparing spinal cord gray matter areas in patients with Post-Polio Syndrome to age and sex matched healthy control subjects and to correlate atrophy with metrics of clinical disability.

This study will be used to develop a tool to streamline poliovirus environmental surveillance for the polio endgame and to provide a tool for detecting polio in places where there is no capacity to carry out the gold standard culture-based detection.