Active clinical trials for "Spinal Cord Injuries"

There exist a variety of outcome measures to asses gait function in individuals with a spinal cord injury (SCI). The most established measures are the 10-meter walk test (10MWT) and the 6-minute walk test (6mWT). They are used to assess treatment efficacy and recovery of gait function in individuals with SCI. However, the 10MWT is appropriate for poor walkers but not sensitive in good walkers and the 6mWT can be time-consuming and is very demanding for severely impaired patients. Therefore the 2-minute walk test (2mWT) has gained more attention in the SCI field. The 2mWT has been established in numerous neurological diseases and has shown to correlate with the 6mWT in patients with neuromuscular disease, multiple sclerosis and stroke. Though the 2mWT has not yet been validated in individuals with SCI. A limitation that affects all timed walking tests is that they suffer from limited information about gait quality (i.e. how walking function is achieved). Being able to receive information on the gait quality of a patient can help to understand the underlying mechanisms of walking improvements after an intervention (e.g. compensation vs recovery). The research in the field of inertia measuring units (IMU) develops and advances very rapidly at the moment resulting in the possibility to perform a gait analysis with a simple IMU setup. However, the reliability of such measurement setups has not yet been shown in individuals with SCI. The primary aim of this study is to test the validity and reliability of the 2mWT in the SCI population. Additionally, it will be investigated if a simple sensor setup can give additional reliable information about the gait pattern of individuals with SCI.

This study examines safety and feasibility of a study protocol using a combination of functional electrical legcycling with voluntary armwork (hybrid training) as either skiergometer or armcycling in high intensity intervals for persons with spinal cord injury paraplegia.

The study is a prospective, open, bicentric and observational study. It is conducted to assess the safety and performance of the Atalante exoskeleton system with patients with lower limb paralysis. The principal objective is to assess the performance of the Atalante system in performing ambulatory functions with motor complete SCI patients characterized by the success rate in performing a 10mWT at the last session of training with the Atalante system.

This study will investigate how repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation delivered as a protocol called 'continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS)' alters motor output and force control to a muscle in the forearm and touch perception in individuals with chronic, incomplete spinal cord injury. CTBS is a non-invasive technique that involved repetitive delivery of transcranial magnetic stimulation at a frequency of 30 Hz over the arm representation in the primary motor or sensory cortex. The purpose of this study is to determine whether cTBS is an effective intervention to increase motor output to a muscle and increase force control of that muscle and also improve the sense of touch.

The overall aim is to assess whether task specific locomotor training and spinal cord electrical stimulation (SCES) can induce neural reorganization of the functionally isolated human spinal cord to improve standing and stepping in individuals with functionally complete SCI. The investigators propose that locomotor training will result in generation of more effective standing and stepping efferent patterns by restoring phase dependent modulation of reflexes and reciprocal inhibition, reducing clonus and mediating interlimb coordination. The investigators propose that the SCES will optimize the physiological state of the spinal cord interneuronal circuitry compromised by compensating for loss of supraspinal input for the retraining of these tasks.

The purpose of this study is to look at the effect of exciting using drugs to target a specific pathway in the body, that relies on a natural chemical the body produces called 'serotonin', in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) during sleep. During this part of the study participants will be asked to take buspirone (Buspar) (15-50mg per day), trazodone (100mg per day) and a placebo in a random fashion, each for a 2 week period (drug period) of time followed by two weeks without drugs (washout period). The drugs will not be taken all at the same time, but each will be taken separately for two weeks followed by a night study to look at the effect the medication/placebo pill has on the way the body responds during sleep.

The purpose of this research study is to determine if DBS is a feasible, safe and effective therapy for pain and autonomic dysreflexia after spinal cord injury.

We propose to test an evidence-based wheelchair skills training program to optimize wheelchair safety and performance in veterans with SCI. The proposed training program incorporates emerging evidence on wheelchair biomechanics and motor-skills learning, and addresses recommendations in a new clinical practice guideline. Given the difficulty in translating wheelchair skills learned in a therapy clinic with "real world" problems in the home and community post-discharge, we are proposing to conduct the wheelchair skills training in and around the veteran's home. The immediate goal is to enhance ability, performance time, safety, community participation, and quality of life, while minimizing physical strain. The ultimate goal is to reduce morbidity/mortality associated with wheelchair use and promote successful aging with a disability.

The programme is designed to investigate the application of robotic exoskeleton in different levels of local rehabilitation facilities. Feasibilities, efficacy, cost-effectiveness, patient and therapist's view of the application of robotic exoskeleton will be evaluated.

The loss of the ability to walk and the associated restriction of mobility presents a major challenge to people with spinal cord injury in an everyday environment designed for pedestrians. Exoskeletal technology has the potential to help people with impaired leg function to regain ambulation and thus improve their independence. This technology is not completely new, but due to their high access price (~120k€/unit), high size and weight (~25 kg), and need for trained physiotherapist supervision, commercially available exoskeletons are only found in large hospitals and only in very few cases get into patients' homes. The company ABLE Human Motion S.L. (Barcelona, Spain) has developed a novel exoskeleton to overcome these disadvantages, which is more compact, lighter and easier to use. The primary objective of this study is to determine the feasibility and usability of the ABLE Exoskeleton for persons with SCI to perform skills in home and community environments.