Active clinical trials for "Spinal Cord Injuries"

Chronic pain after spinal cord injury in or below the level of injury is a common problem and can be severe. The purpose of our study is to investigate the effect of pleasant guided imagery on spinal cord injured patients with chronic pain in or below the level of injury.

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is the most common infection in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) and is linked to major undesired results or complications including death. The bladder of SCI patients, especially those with indwelling catheters, is usually colonized by bacteria, some of which do and others which do not cause symptoms of UTI. Bacteria that do not cause symptoms are often called benign colonizers and are often left untreated because they may provide some protection against infection with more harmful bacteria. This idea of using benign bacteria to prevent infections with symptoms is called bacterial interference. A prototype strain, Escherichia coli 83972, was shown to begin and continue for extended periods of time non symptom causing colonization of the human bladder and to hold back symptom causing infections of the neurogenic bladder. Data from pilot studies at two medical centers indicated that bacterial interference might be a useful therapy for reducing the rate or frequency of UTI in SCI patients. Because almost all SCI patients have a UTI at some time, and also the large costs of treating this infection, studying the impact of bladder colonization with E. coli 83972 on the rate of symptom causing UTI has an amazing potential for improving the quality of life of SCI patients and decreasing the cost of health care. Like with other preventive plans such as vaccination, for instance, it is important to explore the effectiveness of this new preventive approach. The project is a prospective, randomized, double blind, multi-center study that deals with specific pieces of bacterial interference in SCI patients. HYPOTHESES: Placing non symptom causing bacteria (E. coli 83972) into SCI patients' bladders reduces the rate of symptom causing UTI. A. SPECIFIC AIM: Determine how bladder colonization with E. coli 83972 or similar bacteria affects the rate of symptom causing urinary tract infections in a large group of SCI and Spina Bifida patients by conducting a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, multi-center clinical trial.

Respiratory complications continue to be one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in people with spinal cord injury, especially among cervical and higher thoracic injuries. Both inspiratory and expiratory function are often severely decreased, leading to respiratory complications, such as atelectasis, pneumonia and ventilatory failure. The prevention of these respiratory complications needs to begin immediately after injury. To achieve effective expelling of secretions before they form mucus plugs, it is essential to improve patients ability to cough. Manually assisting the cough is one way of increasing cough flow, but an effective cough also requires adequate lung volumes. The emphasis should therefore be on expansion of the lungs before coughing. One way of expanding the lungs is by air-stacking. In air-stacking insufflations are stacked in the lungs to maximally expand them. Cough can be valued by measuring Peak Cough Flow (PCF). By combining air-stacking with manually assisted cough the PCF can be increased sufficiently. The aim of this study is to compare the effect of two different air-stacking techniques on PCF, air-stacking on a respirator versus air-stacking with a manual resuscitator.

Pressure ulcers (PU) are skin breakdowns that often form after blood flow in the skin is reduced from prolonged and repeated exposure to externally applied forces. As many as 85% of individuals with a spinal cord injury (SCI) report the occurrence of at least 1 PU since being injured. Despite the increasing attention and emphasis on prevention, PUs still represent a major health risk for persons with SCI. Among the numerous potential physical risk factors identified for the development of a PU were several conditions that have a significant negative effect on skin blood flow. In addition, improper management of blood sugar is a major risk factor for PU development and it impedes healing. It would appear that hormones (i.e., chemical signals in the blood) associated with how the body uses sugar that target the blood vessels may play an important role in the development and formation of a PU. In persons with SCI, skin blood flow responses to insulin (i.e., a hormone that helps the body use sugar and also relaxes the blood vessels allowing blood flow to increase) in the lower extremity were shown to be much lower than healthy individuals. The proposed study in up to 30 individuals with chronic SCI and a difficult-to-heal pelvic region PU has 2 phases: (1) a 4-week "observation" phase [if the PU does not heal appropriately (determined by digital photos and software computation), and the subject is found to be insulin resistant then they will progress to the next phase of the study] and (2) an 8-week "treatment" phase. All participants will continue to receive the standard wound care throughout the observation and treatment phases. If the surface area of the PU does not decrease by more than 30% during the 4-week observation phase, the participant will be eligible to enter the 8-week treatment phase, in which they will be randomly assigned to receive active drug (e.g., pioglitazone) or placebo. The participants will have four study visits in which the following will be acquired: digital image of the wound to monitor wound surface area, skin blood flow measurements of the peri-wound area, and blood tests to monitor liver function, kidney function, blood sugar (hemoglobin A1C, insulin, glucose), nutritional status (albumin and pre-albumin), a complete blood count with differential, and makers of inflammation. Weekly monitoring of symptoms and participant experiences will be closely monitored.

This study investigates the effect of upper extremity exercise on postprandial lipemia (PPL) in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI). Participants are measured at rest and fed a standardized meal following seated rest (CON) or arm cycling exercise (ACE). The meal is infused with "stable isotope lipid tracers" that allow for determination of the end fates of the fat in the meal.

This study is for people who have a paralyzed arm and hand from a spinal cord injury, who have also received a recording electrode array in the brain as part of the BrainGate study. The study will look at the ability of these participants to control different grasping patterns of the hand, both in virtual reality and in his/her actual hand. Movement of the participant's hand is controlled by a functional electrical stimulation (FES) system, which involves small electrodes implanted in the arm, shoulder and hand that use small electrical currents to activate the appropriate muscles.

This study will evaluate the efficacy of a newly developed serious game, SCI HARD, to enhance self-management skills, self-reported health behaviors, and quality of life among adolescents and young adults with spinal cord injury and disease (SCI/D). SCI HARD was designed by the project PI, Dr. Meade, in collaboration with the UM3D (University of Michigan three dimensional) Lab between 2010 and 2013 with funding from a NIDRR (National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research) Field Initiated Development Grant to assist persons with SCI develop and apply the necessary skills to keep their bodies healthy while managing the many aspects of SCI care. The study makes a unique contribution to rehabilitation by emphasizing the concepts of personal responsibility and control over one's health and life as a whole. By selecting an innovative approach for program implementation, we also attempt to address the high cost of care delivery and lack of health care access to underserved populations with SCI/D living across the United States (US). H1: SCI Hard participants will show greater improvements in problem solving skills, healthy attitudes about disability, and SCI Self-efficacy than will control group members; these improvements will be sustained over time within and between groups. H2: SCI Hard participants will endorse more positive health behaviors than control group members; these improvements will be sustained over time within and between groups. H3: SCI Hard participants will have higher levels of QOL than control group members; these differences will be sustained over time within and between groups. H4: Among SCI Hard participants, dosage of game play will be related to degree of change in self-management skills, health behaviors and QOL.

Design and develop web-based self-management intervention to improve catheter-related outcomes and quality of life in people with spinal cord injury (SCI). Conduct a pilot study to assess the feasibility (i.e., acceptability and usability of the website application) and preliminary effectiveness of this new self-management intervention. Develop and test the reliability of new/modified measures (intermittent catheter self-efficacy and self-management).

Each year, 11,000 people suffer a spinal cord injury (SCI) in the U.S. Within the first year, there are profound declines in physiologic function, forming the underlying substrate for future cardiovascular disease . In fact, acquired cardiovascular disease is an increasingly recognized consequence of SCI and is the leading cause of death in SCI. Though incompletely understood, the almost 10-fold prevalence of cardiovascular disease results in part from profound physiologic 'detraining' resulting from motor impairment and immobility. Currently, effective interventions preventing acute declines that lead to cardiovascular compromise and increased risk in SCI are lacking - exercise therapy for those with SCI is challenging and when employed, is typically limited to the upper body. Recently, the investigators refined a unique form of exercise for those with SCI that specifically mirrors exercise performed by those without SCI. Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) Row Training (RT) couples volitional arm and electrically controlled leg exercise, resulting in a hemodynamic profile that produces the beneficial cardiac loading conditions of large muscle mass exercise. As such, FES-RT may be a safe and effective way to attenuate cardiovascular declines following SCI. The investigators aims are to test the overall hypotheses that FES-RT will: 1) mitigate against increased visceral adiposity and reduced insulin sensitivity, 2) prevent worsening lipid profile and compromised baroreflex function, and 3) counter ventricular wall thickening and declining ventricular function occurring with acute SCI, and that these effects will be greater than that observed with an arms-only exercise group. Changes with FES-RT will be compared to a time (wait-list) control and to arms-only-RT. Individuals with an SCI within the last 3-6 months will be randomized to FES-RT, to a time control, or arms-only-RT. Measures will be made at baseline and 6 months. The investigators work will provide results that clearly delineate potential health benefits of FES-RT, and if FES-RT is effective in a majority of those with SCI, its application, implementation, and integration could be easily replicated.

Human Umbilical Cord-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (UC-MSC) and Bone Marrow Mononuclear Cells (BMMC) from the patient injected into the spinal fluid intrathecally and injected intravenously (IV) is a safe and therapeutic procedure for spinal cord injury (SCI) patients.