Active clinical trials for "Spinal Cord Diseases"

The primary purpose of this study is to compare anterior and posterior surgical approach in treatment of CSM in terms of surgical complications and neurological, functional, disease-specific and quality of life outcomes measures. Secondary aims are to quantify the amount of change pre and post-surgery concerning the same outcome measures; to determine if there are differences in outcomes between posterior surgical techniques (i.e. laminectomy with fusion or laminoplasty) and examine the relationship between baseline MRI and baseline and follow-up neurological and functional outcomes.

This study will use three different magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to study HTLV-1 associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/STP)-a disease of slowly progressive weakness in the legs. It is not known how the HTLV-1 virus causes this disease, but it is thought that as the body's immune system tries to destroy the virus, parts of the nervous system-primarily the spinal cord-are damaged. Patients 18 years of age and older with HAM/TSP and healthy normal volunteers may be eligible for this study. Participants will undergo diffusion tensor MRI, MR-spectroscopy, and magnetization transfer imaging to look at different compositional, architectural, and microscopic properties of the brain. All of these techniques are similar to conventional MRI, and like the conventional method they use a strong magnetic field and radio waves to measure structural and chemical changes in brain tissue. Each of the three scans will be done on separate days, each lasting about 1 hour. For the procedures, the patient or volunteer lies on a stretcher in a narrow metal cylinder (the scanner) and is asked to remain still for 15 to 30 minutes at a time. A special lightweight coil may be placed on the head to enhance the brain images. The subject can communicate with the person doing the scan at all times.

PANGEA is an international prospective point prevalence study to describe the epidemiology, interventions, and outcomes in children with acute critical brain disease.

Low back pain may be reduced after cervical spinal surgery

The primary purposes of this study are to compare anterior and posterior surgical approach in treatment of CSM ad to compare variations in treatment and outcomes of CSM worldwide.

Positioning a patient in prone position under anaesthesia significantly alters cardiovascular physiology. Cervical myelopathy patients are known to have autonomic dysfunction. Such patients when positioned in prone position under anaesthesia carry a higher risk of developing hemodynamic changes and this can compromise spinal cord perfusion. This prospective observational study was conducted on 30 patients with cervical myelopathy who underwent surgery in prone position at NIMHANS, Bangalore hospital. The non invasive cardiac output monitor (NICOM, Cheetah Medicals) was used to record various hemodynamic parameters. The hemodynamic parameters were recorded at baseline, post induction, post intubation, prior to prone position, post prone position, and every five minutes thereafter upto 20mins. The hemodynamic parameters that were recorded using the NICOM monitor: HR - Heart rate (beats /min) NIBP - non invasive blood pressure (mmHg) MAP - mean arterial pressure(mmHg) CO - cardiac output (l/min) CI - cardiac index (l/min/m2) SV - Stroke volume (ml/beat) SVV -stroke volume variability (%) TPR - total peripheral resistance (dynes. sec/cm5)

The purpose of this study is to collect biofluid samples for the banking and usage in ALS research. Through comparison of these samples, the researchers hope to learn more about the underlying cause of ALS, as well as find unique biological markers, which could be used to develop new therapies.

There is no difference in surgical outcomes for patients suffering from cervical spondylotic myelopathy treated with anterior decompression and fusion or posterior cervical laminoplasty.

In degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) the dynamics of disease progression and the outcome after surgical decompression vary inter individually and do not necessarily correlate with radiological findings. By better characterization of the underlying pathophysiology this study aims to improve diagnostic power in DCM using Navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS).

Cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) is the most frequent cause of myelopathy in those over the age of 50. They claim that surgical treatment of myelopathy, especially of the mild and moderate forms, has not shown better results than conservative treatment in the long term, and criteria for the indication and the timing of the operation have not been established. In order to get some more reliable data, a long-term follow up observational study will be started to confirm the effects of long term for conservative treatment.