Active clinical trials for "Sclerosis"

The public health impact of this study will be the application of the greater understanding of the oral health status, oral health related behaviors, and quality of life of patients with systemic sclerosis (scleroderma or SSc). It is hoped that risks and protective factors can be identified to be associated with the oral health status of adults with systemic sclerosis,leading to the development of interventions for improved oral health in this population,and providing the basis for a larger study of oral health problems of adults with systemic sclerosis.

This a retrospective, blinded trial in which collaborators in Italy will review the doppler findings from the Combined Transcranial and Extracranial Venous Doppler (CTEVD) trial in an attempt to measure reproducibility.

MicroRNAs regulate gene expression. The abnormal expression of microRNAs has been reported in many human diseases. The purpose of this pilot study is to determine if microRNA expression is changed in untreated and glatiramer acetate-treated patients with multiple sclerosis.

The goals of this study are to 1. Investigate the sensitivity of allocentric visual memory when compared to more established measures of cognition in identifying cognitive difficulties among MS subjects when compared to controls. 2. Determine which cognitive test variable will be most strongly associated with self and informant reports of cognition. 3. Determine which MRI metric will be most strongly related to neuropsychological test performance 4. Determine the degree to which allocentric visual memory is related to functional connectivity on fMRI.

One of the major problems of systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients is suggested to be articular involvement. Mostly involved joints in SSc were reported as wrist, carpometacarpal-interphalangeal, foot, knee, hip and shoulder however there have been little knowledge on sacroiliac joint. Here the investigators plan a study on the involvement of this joint in SSc.

A Web based real world observational study in Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) population capturing outcomes reported by patients and by the physicians during 12 months after initiating or resuming Betaseron.

The study serves the identification of early forms of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in connective tissue disease and the hemodynamic follow-up of the investigated patients. The basic hypothesis is that PAH may start with a remodeling of small pulmonary arteries, which leads to a stiffening of the vessels, indicated by the inability to vasodilatation and thus a disproportional increase in pulmonary pressure during exercise. Recent studies have shown that a proportion of such patients may develop manifest PAH within a few years. The early identification of these patients and the understanding of the natural course of the disease may improve prognosis. The aim of the present study is to investigate hemodynamic and clinical changes in patients with connective tissue disease in a time interval of 3-5 years with a focus on the development of pulmonary hypertension.

The purpose of this study is to assess whether skin biopsy specimens from patients with diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis (dcSSc) can be used as biomarkers (measures of activity and type) of disease to predict response to various experimental treatments. There are various experimental treatments being used in the treatment of slceroderma, but there is no way to predict response to any given therapy. The investigators will use DNA microarray to analyze the changes in gene expression in skin biopsies in response to various treatments. Our hypothesis is that the investigators will see changes in gene expression in response to various treatments that will give us insight into the cause of scleroderma. The investigators predict that they will be able to use this information to predict which experimental treatments will be beneficial to individual patients

This is a single-site, pilot study. In this study, we hope to learn if the Lido Workset is a sensitive measure of limb spasticity in patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The Lido Workset is a FDA approved, non-invasive device which has been used to assess motor function and spasticity. The testing will take approximately 25 minutes. Subjects will lie down on a table and have a leg attached to the Lido Workset device arm. The Lido Workset will move the leg back and forth many times at different speeds. The Lido Workset will also analyze resistance to passive (while subject is not moving or resisting movement) movement of the wrist and knee.

The purpose of this study is to examine and compare changes in the specific thinking skills of patients with RRMS who are receiving treatment with one of three immunomodulatory medications (Avonex, Copaxone, or Rebif).