Active clinical trials for "Spinal Cord Injuries"

The purpose of this study is to determine if individuals with incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI) who remain unable to walk normally 1 year after their SCIs are able to sense and move the affected legs better after 10-13 weeks of treatment with a new robotic therapy device. The hypothesis is that using the AMES device on the legs of chronic subjects with incomplete SCI will result in improved strength, sensation in the legs, and improved functional gait in the treated limbs.

Current guidelines for the clinical management of acute spinal cord injury (SCI) recommend maintenance of mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) at 85 to 90 mmHg for the first seven days after SCI as a clinical option. Unfortunately, the medical evidence to support this recommendation exists only at the clinical case series level (Class III data). Furthermore, maintenance of sustained systemic hypertension, as per clinical guidelines, may be associated with risks to the patient via adverse medical events. Given this equivocal evidence, the investigators group has questioned the merit of sustained induced hypertension following acute SCI and has previously conducted a randomized, prospective controlled feasibility study to further examine this issue. This prior pilot study randomized patients with acute SCI to a spinal cord perfusion pressure (SCPP = MAP - intrathecal pressure (ITP)) target of ≥ 75 mmHg or to a control group (hypotension avoidance, MAP ≥ 65 mmHg). The primary endpoint measure was defined as the change in American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) motor score from baseline. No difference in the primary outcome was noted at one-year post-SCI in this study. In light of this pilot data, the investigators hypothesize that maintenance of normotension (MAP ≥ 65mmHg) is not inferior to induced hypertension (MAP ≥ 85mmHg) for 7 days following acute SCI. As such, the investigators propose to conduct a Phase III non-inferiority prospective, randomized clinical trial in acute SCI patients. Subjects will be randomized into one of two MAP management groups for 7 days; Group 1 will be managed with a target MAP ≥ 65 mmHg, while Group 2 will be managed with a target MAP ≥ 85 mmHg. The primary endpoint will be change in ASIA motor score from baseline at 12 months post injury. A difference of ≤10 ASIA motor points change from baseline between groups will be considered as non-inferiority. Secondary endpoints will include ASIA sensory score, proportion of patients achieving a one grade improvement in ASIA impairment scale, quality of life assessment (as measured by Short-Form-36 [SF-36]) and functional outcome (as measured by the Spinal Cord Independence Measure (SCIM) and Functional Independence Measure (FIM). These will be measured at baseline, 72 hours and 3, 6 and 12 months from injury. Adverse events will be meticulously recorded. The information gleaned from this trial will provide valuable information for the acute treatment of traumatic SCI and will serve the objective of optimizing current clinical practice and thus maximizing medical and neurological outcome for individuals following acute traumatic SCI.

A drug called AV650 (tolperisone HCl) will be given to patients who have spasticity following a spinal cord injury. This study has three purposes: To determine whether AV650 is safe for patients with spinal cord injury; To assess what the body does with AV650 once it is ingested; and, To gather some early evidence as to whether AV650 is effective in treating spasticity in patients with spinal cord injury.

This clinical trial aims to treat a damaged spinal cord by injecting your own bone marrow stromal cells (autologous bone marrow stromal cells) into cerebrospinal fluid through the lumbar puncture, and assess the safety and efficacy of the procedure.

The investigators propose to compare plasma protein profiles for SCI patients with/without chronic neuropathic pain in order identify biomarker(s) that are associated with this medical condition. Secondly, the investigators propose to identify a temporal relationship to initial SCI at which these biomarkers manifest. Our working hypothesis is that sustained alterations in specific inflammatory molecules are associated with chronic neuropathic pain following SCI, and that their plasma levels can serve as biomarkers to identify patients at risk for the development of neuropathic pain. Additionally the investigators are collecting skin tissue biopsy samples from patients following acute and chronic spinal cord injury to create vector-free human iPS cells from fibroblasts by direct delivery of reprogramming proteins.

This phase II/III clinical trial is designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of autologous Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC) transplanted directly into the injured spinal cord.

An injury to the spinal cord can be life altering: with a 'complete' injury, the affected individual is unable to move their legs at all and may become wheelchair-bound. While a 'complete' injury suggests that the cord was completely severed, it is actually more common for some connections in the spinal cord to remain after it is injured but, for some reason, they are inactive or sleeping. Electrical stimulation applied to the skin surface at the lower back appears to 'wake up' these remaining connections, allowing some (previously unavailable) leg movements. The first time they had this spinal stimulation (SS), people with long-standing 'complete' spinal cord injuries became able to move their legs and, after several weeks of SS, these movements seemed to increase. They also noticed other changes taking place, including improvements in their bladder control. SS has been shown to cause strong leg extension movements, and one person with SCI stood up with SS, using minimal support. SS for standing may assist people with SCI to carry out daily tasks at home, which would hugely benefit the SCI community. In this study we will explore whether SS enables people with SCI to stand up and whether regular sit-to-stand training combined with SS improves; i) standing ability; ii) bladder control and; iii) well-being, in people with SCI. Ten volunteers with SCI will carry out an 8-week sit-to-stand training programme. Training will be carried out 3 times/week at Neurokinex using their Keiser Power Rack. The volunteers will be randomly assigned either to the control (sit-to-stand only) or test (sit-to-stand plus SS) group. Measurements will be taken before and after the training programme to assess standing ability, bladder function, and well-being.

This study tests the feasibility, safety and efficacy of garments embedding conductive electrodes (FES-shirt) for the independent delivery of functional electrical stimulation (FES). 12 people with SCI and 12 people with stroke who have some degree of arm paralysis will receive 40 hours of FES with these FES-shirt. The ability to use the FES-shirts and the improvement in function while receiving FES will indicate the immediate benefits. Their functional capabilities will be measured before and after 40 FES sessions to evaluate the carry-over effects.

This study will compare two exercise programs in an interventional study for manual wheelchair users with spinal cord injury and shoulder pain. Subjects without spinal cord injury will also be enrolled to compare exercise approaches.

The purpose of this study is to provide confirmatory evidence of the safety and efficacy of two Dysport® (AbobotulinumtoxinA) doses (600 units [U] and 800 U), compared to placebo in reducing urinary incontinence (UI) in adult subjects treated for neurogenic detrusor overactivity (NDO) due to spinal cord injury (SCI) or multiple sclerosis (MS).