Active clinical trials for "Spinal Cord Injuries"

For many people with spinal cord injury, seeking employment after injury is an important goal. There are services available to help people with disabilities. However, the best ways to coordinate and deliver these services are not yet known. This project will compare two ways of coordinating and delivering services that are designed to help people with spinal cord injury obtain employment.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating disability with physical, social and vocational consequences. Owing to its overwhelming complications, the cost of treatment and rehabilitation increases constantly. Persons with spinal cord injury are always dependent on their families in most of house hold, recreational and activities of daily life. Majority of SCI are incomplete classification C or D as per American spinal injury Association (ASIA). Due to certain spared pathways intrinsic mechanism of neuroplasticity take place in incomplete spinal cord injuries (iSCI) which is liable for natural recovery, but this potential is limited and often slow. Therefore there is need for some advance therapeutic interventions which may enhance neuroplasticity and improve functional recovery in individuals with iSCI. It has been reported that acute intermittent hypoxia (AIH) increase neuro plasticity by causing release of spinal serotonin which stimulate serotonin type 2 (5-HT2) receptors that undergoes a series of mechanisms which increase brain derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF) which subsequently enhance motor functions of upper and lower limbs in iSCI. Despite of the growing body of literatures supporting that AIH improves both upper limb and lower limb functions along with walking ability and speed. However, their results are limited to small sample size, gender biased and lack of intralimbs assessment. As per the author knowledge, these literatures lack retention effects of AIH on upper and lower limb function. In addition variables like quality of life, disability and some biomarkers related to hypoxic effects have not been reported in any of these studies. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that variant geographic locations and socioeconomic status may affects persons with iSCI differently. So in light of these literature gaps, the author aim is to investigate the effects of AIH in upper and lower limb motor function, balance, quality of life and disability. In addition, the effects of AIH on brain derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF), hemoglobin (Hb) level, numbers of RBS and hematocrits will be assessed.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a 6-week app-guided Mindfulness meditation training (MM) intervention and health education (active control) condition in people with spinal cord injury (SCI) who have chronic pain and to examine the feasibility of data collection procedures

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of using suprascapular nerve block for individuals with chronic spinal cord injury who have chronic shoulder pain.

Background: - Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common motor disorder in children. CP often causes crouch gait, an abnormal way of walking. Knee crouch has many causes, so no single device or approach works best for everybody. This study s adjustable brace provides many types of walking assistance. Researchers will evaluate brace options to find the best solution for each participant, and whether one solution works best for the group. Objective: - To evaluate a new brace to improve crouch gait in children with CP. Eligibility: Children 5 17 years old with CP. Healthy volunteers 5 17 years old. Design: All participants will be screened with medical history and physical exam. Healthy volunteers will have 1 visit. They will do motion analysis, EMG, and EEG described below. Participants with CP will have 6 visits. Visit 1: <TAB>1. Motion analysis: Balls will be taped to participants skin. This helps cameras follow their movement. <TAB>2. EMG: Metal discs will be taped to participants skin. They measure electrical muscle activity. <TAB>3. Participants knee movement will be tested. <TAB>4. Participants will walk 50 meters. <TAB>5. Participants legs will be cast to make custom braces. Visit 2: Participants will wear their new braces and have them adjusted. Steps 1 3 will be repeated. EEG: Small metal discs will be placed on the participants scalp. They record brain waves. Participants will have electrical stimulation of their knees and practice extending them. Participants will take several walks with the braces in different settings. Visits 3 5: participants will repeat the walking and some other steps from visit 2. Visit 6 will repeat visit 2.

About 25-51% of adults with acquired spinal cord injury (SCI) have "AIS D" SCI, the lowest severity grade of neurologic injury. Veterans with AIS D SCI generally have better outcomes in mobility, community integration, and employment. However, counterintuitively, they are also at higher risk of poor subjective well-being (SWB) and related psychosocial outcomes. Preliminary evidence suggests that poorer SWB in this group is associated with distinctive, modifiable factors such as less intensity of acute rehabilitation services, limited development of instrumental and social support networks, and underdeveloped disability identity. A significant gap in the care of Veterans with AIS D SCI is that they are unlikely to receive rehabilitation that is responsive to their specific experiences and needs. The proposed study will develop a novel, self-management based program to help Veterans with AIS D SCI. This study is highly significant, as creation of the proposed program is expected to improve SWB and lifetime psychosocial functioning for Veterans with AIS D SCI.

This study is aimed to evaluate whether transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation (tSCS) can augment robotic gait training (RGT) to improve functional mobility in participants with chronic paraplegia. It also evaluate the impact of the tSCS+RGT on health-related quality of life (HRQOL), compared to RGT alone. This is a prospective single-arm crossover study in participants with incomplete chronic traumatic spinal cord paraplegia. 6 subjects will be recruited. The intervention includes Phase 1 of training which consists of 16 sessions of robotic gait training (RGT) + conventional physiotherapy in 8-10 weeks, and Phase 2 of training which consists of 16 sessions of RGT training + tSCS + conventional physiotherapy in 8-10 weeks. Outcome measures including mobility function assessment and neuromuscular assessment will be collected at Baseline, Post-Phase 1 and Post-Phase 2. A satisfaction survey on the intervention "RGT training + tSCS + conventional physiotherapy" will be performed at week-18 assessment.

This study will test the newly-developed My spinal cord injury (SCI) Toolkit program in two formats - unguided use of the program and use supported by a coach. These two active treatment formats will be compared to treatment as usual (waitlist control) in adults with chronic pain and SCI. Hypotheses include: Treatment adherence, participant satisfaction, and perception of positive change will be high and drop-out rates low for both treatments but will be better in the coached compared to the unguided arm In terms of pre- to post-treatment changes in pain interference, coached My SCI Toolkit program will be superior to treatment as usual

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the timing of delivery of functional electrical stimulation therapy in combination with task-specific training (FEST+TST) following spinal cord injury (SCI) influences functional and neurological recovery.

Acute intermittent hypoxia (AIH) involves brief (1 min), repeated episodes (~15) of breathing low oxygen air to stimulate spinal neuroplasticity. Animal and human studies show that AIH improves motor function after spinal cord injury, particularly with slightly increased carbon dioxide (hypercapnic AIH; AIHH) and task-specific training. Using a double blind cross-over design, the study will test whether AIHH improves breathing more than AIH and whether specific genetic variations are related to individuals' intervention responses.