Active clinical trials for "Spinal Cord Injuries"

This is an open, randomized, rehabilitation-controlled study in subjects with complete Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury, where the active treatment consists of a surgical implantation of SC0806 (a biodegradable device with heparin-activated FGF1 and nerve implants).

The study is a phase I/II trial designed to establish the safety and efficacy of intravenous combined with intrathecal administration of autologous bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells to patients with spinal cord injury.

The purpose of the study is to determine whether or not a brief psychological treatment called cognitive behaviour therapy will help people who have suffered a spinal cord injury to cope better with their current circumstances.

The morbidity of spinal cord injury (SCI) is increasing significantly in China. The methods to treat SCI patients in sequela stage update are poor. Though traditional rehabilitation therapy is the routine method to treat SCI in sequela stage, its effect to improve the neurological disorders of these patients, such as the dysfunction of sense, motor, autologous adjustment of blood pressure control of urination and defecation, perspiration , etc. is unsatisfying. Rehabilitation Therapy can prevent the process of muscle atrophy and joint stiffness. However, it can not repair the damaged nerve function. Studies show that mesenchymal stem cell transplantation can remarkably improve the neurological function of SCI in animals without any severe side effect. In this study, the investigators use mesenchymal stem cells derived from umbilical cord to treat 40 SCI patients (20 cases in early stage and 20 cases in sequela stage). The investigators also follow-up ten patients who only receive rehabilitation and another ten outpatients who accept neither stem cell therapy nor rehabilitation. On this basis, the investigators can compare the efficacy of these two treatments.

Body weight support (BWS) treadmill training uses an overhead harness to give partial support to patients walking on a treadmill. This study will determine whether BWS training is more effective than conventional rehabilitation therapy in improving walking ability in patients with spinal cord injuries (SCI).

This study compares peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) and exercise efficiency in upper-body poling versus arm crank ergometry in trained able-bodied and paraplegic participants.

After a complete spinal cord injury (SCI), the patient becomes wheelchair-dependent, and the associated lack of weight-bearing and inactivity of paralysed muscles can lead to extensive bone loss in the long bones of the legs. It has been documented that the most rapid phase of bone loss is during the first year, but bone loss can continue for a number of years post-injury, leading to an increased risk of fracture in chronic SCI. Through a previous longitudinal study, in which we described rates of bone loss in the first year of SCI using peripheral Quantitative Computed Tomography (pQCT), we showed that there is a subset of patients who suffer from extremely rapid bone loss, losing up to 50% of their bone mineral density (BMD) in the first 12 months post-SCI. As a result of this work, we now know that, by performing repeat bone scans within months of injury, we are able to detect and "red-flag" those patients at highest risk of rapidly weakening bones. We propose that, once these patients have been identified, there is an opportunity to intervene with bone-stimulating interventions within months of injury, before BMD reaches dangerously low values. In this new phase of the research, therefore, we are introducing an intervention phase to the longitudinal pQCT study. For this, we aim to trial a physical intervention, Whole Body Vibration (WBV), that could potentially reduce rates of further bone loss in fast bone losers. Vibration would achieve this by acting as a mechanical stimulus for bone cells, to encourage bone formation. If shown to be successful as an early bone-stimulating intervention, it may prove to be a tool for reducing future fracture risk in patients with SCI.

Shoulder pain in people with spinal cord injury is one of the most prevalent in acute and chronic patients because of weakness in shoulder periarticular muscles, and also because of overuse of these part of the body in assistive devices. This study aims to evidence if dry needling (a physiotherapy technique) is also useful in patients with spinal cord injury, and how long it could hold out without or less pain.

Establish if change from the baseline in ultrasound muscle parameters over 2 months of rehabilitation correlates with functional status of SCI patients at the end of rehabilitation

The purpose of this study is to examine how delivery of subthreshold electrical stimulation of the spinal cord alters the excitability of neural pathways and consequently movement performance in healthy and spinal cord injured individuals. Specifically, we assess how stimulation parameters such as electrode configurations and stimulation frequency affect spinal excitability, corticospinal excitability, intracortical excitability, motor unit properties and force production. This study is not an intervention study, but a mechanistic study trying to shed light on how this novel neuromodulatory technique acutely affects the central nervous system.