Active clinical trials for "Spasm"

Patients with focal dystonia experience uncontrollable movements of the hand during certain types of skilled movements. Though the origin of the disorder is not fully understood, it is thought that brain areas involved in moving the hands and receiving touch information from the hands, are involved. For example, patients with dystonia affecting the hand show changes in their ability to perceive touch - this is something that typically escapes the patients own awareness. Further, the area of the brain receiving touch information has a disrupted representation of the finger skin surfaces. The goal of our research is to improve dystonia symptoms in patients with hand dystonia. We will attempt to achieve this goal by implementing an intensive training treatment that requires patients to attend to, and use touch information applied to specific fingertips. Previous work has attempted to alter touch perception using sensory training and improvements in motor control (hand writing) of dystonia patients were observed. For example, learning to read Braille improves tactile perception and handwriting in focal hand dystonia. A different approach to treat focal hand dystonia involves a technique called repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), and this can also temporarily improve hand writing in dystonia patients. The proposed research will attempt to alter touch processing using touch training alone, or in combination with rTMS. Rather than train using Braille reading, the sensory training will be applied using a systematic, experimenter controlled stimulus set that focuses on touch stimuli applied to individual digits. Importantly patients will have to associate certain types of touch information with rewards and other touch input with the lack of a reward. The study will first involve measuring the location and representation of the touch in the brain using multiple brain mapping tools. These tools include functional magnetic resonance imaging and magnetoencephalography; when both tools are used a very accurate picture of finger representation can be obtained, and we also know what brain areas respond to touch stimuli. Dystonia symptoms and touch perception will also be assessed. Next, patients will participate in a training intervention that involves 15 days(2.5 hr/day) of touch training applied to the fingertips of the dystonia affected hand. Patients will identify the touch targets amongst distractors and receive on-line performance feedback. The goal of the training is to provide the cortex with regular boundaries of fingers and in this way, attempt to re-shape the sensory cortex to accept these boundaries. Another group of patients will receive rTMS. The goal of the rTMS is to create an environment in sensory cortex that is open or 'ready' to accept changes induced by tactile stimulation. The rTMS will be immediately followed by the tactile training. A third group of patients will receive a placebo version of rTMS followed by tactile training. The latter group will allow us to understand if rTMS has a definite effect on the physiology of the patient. Following the 15-day training, we will assess the brains representation of fingertips, changes in dystonia symptoms and changes in the perception of touch stimuli. This research will advance the treatment of focal hand dystonia and assist the design of precise remediation training tailored to the dystonia patient.

Infantile Spasms (IS) are classically refractory to the usual antiepileptic drugs and often pose a therapeutic challenge. Since, there is associated significant morbidity, much effort has been directed over the past years to evaluate the role of various anticonvulsants in the management of IS. High dose oral prednisolone has been shown to cause early cessation of spasms and resolution of hypsarrythmia on Electroencephalogram. Recently, role of intravenous methylprednislone pulse therapy has been explored as one of the therapeutic modality in IS, in order to avoid the development of side-effects associated with prolonged oral steroid therapy and maintain long-term efficacy.However, there are no studies comparing iv methylprednisolone pulse therapy with high dose oral prednisolone..

This study evaluates the effect of botulinum toxin 100 U or saline, injected endoscopically in the distal esophagus, on symptoms and manometry pattern in patients with diffuse esophageal spasm.

Epileptic spasms are a difficult to treat epileptic condition in young children. The first line treatment is hormonal treatment, in the form of ACTH or oral steroids, which are effective in 60-70% of children. The condition does not respond well to other anti-epileptic drugs except vigabatrin which is not approved and hence has limited availability and high cost in India. The ketogenic diet, a high fat low carbohydrate diet has been found to be effective in refractory childhood epilepsy especially epileptic spasms. However, the ketogenic diet restricts calories and proteins and required strict weighing of foods. The modified Atkins diet (MAD) is a less restrictive diet which is easier for the parents to prepare and for the children to consume. In this study, it is planned to evaluate the efficacy of the MAD in children with epileptic spasms refractory to hormonal treatment in a randomized controlled trial.

Muscle cramps markedly affect the quality of life in cirrhotic patients with no highly effective drug. Quinine was suggested for treatment of patients with muscle cramps in patients with liver cirrhosis. However, thrombocytopenia, cardiac arrhythmias and cinchonism are serious side effects.

Patients with cirrhosis often experience muscle cramps with varying severity. The mechanism of their occurrence is not yet understood. Muscle cramps in patients with cirrhosis are associated with significantly diminished quality of life. The aim of the study is to assess the efficacy of baclofen in the treatment of muscle cramps in patients with liver cirrhosis.

- Cyclobenzaprine, is a muscle relaxer medication used to relieve skeletal muscle spasms. It is one of the best-studied drug for this application.

Radial artery is the recommended route for percutaneous coronary intervention for it significantly reduces net adverse clinical events compared to the femoral approach. The success of the radial approach is therefore of a paramount importance. However, radial artery spasm (RAS) remains one of the major limitations of transradial approach (TRA) and the most frequent cause of TRA failure. Several recommendations has been issued to improve success rate when using the radial route. In the Tunisian difficult economic context, the use of low end equipment, the unavailability of nitroglycerine and calcium antagonist verapamil, has led to the general feeling that RAS and TRA failure has subsequently increased. The standard and only used protocol by the Tunisian interventional cardiologist, consists of administrating 1 mg isosorbide dinitrate through the arterial sheath immediately after radial arterial puncture, therefore limiting the options to prevent RAS. Nicardipine is the only injectable calcium antagonist available in Tunisia. Its spasmolytic action on radial artery has been well demonstrated when used in CABG. However, it has been very poorly investigated in trans radial percutaneous coronary intervention. Investigators believe that the concomitant use of nicardipine with isorbide might significantly reduce RAS and TRA failure when compared to isosorbide dinitrate only.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the presence of neuroinflammation in children with infantile spasms using 11C-PK11195 positron emission tomography (PK PET) scan, and its response to ACTH treatment by repeating the PK PET scan after treatment.

This study evaluate topical anaesthesia application for 30 minutes before tranradial catheterization during cardiac catheterization can reduce pain and decrease radial artery spasm