Active clinical trials for "Stroke"

According to the theory of wave transmission, the speed of wave transmission is dependent on the nature of the transmission medium, which is the vessel wall for pulse wave transmission. Then, the pulse wave velocity is related to the mechanical property of the vessel wall. The mechanical property of the vessel wall is determined by the texture of the vessel wall and the contraction status of the smooth muscle within the vessel wall. Because the texture of the vessel wall could not be changed in a short duration, the sympathetic nerve activity, which controls the contractibility of the smooth muscle, becomes the only determinant factor of pulse wave velocity. So, pulse wave velocity may reflect the status of sympathetic nerve activity. The purpose of this project is to use the pulse wave velocity to measure the sympathetic activity of stroke and spinal cord patients. The present project plans to measure the pulse wave simultaneously at four limbs by pressure receptors, and use the electrocardiogram as the reference to synchronize the recorded pulse wave at different vessels, using the corrected data to calculate the pulse wave velocity. With the pulse wave velocity of different vessels, we, the investigators at National Taiwan University Hospital, can understand the local sympathetic nerve activity in different diseases and different sites. The first year, we will set up the equipment for measuring the pulse wave velocity, and then apply it to 20 healthy subjects to adjust the measurement error and ascertain the reproducibility of the machine. The second year, we will apply the measurement to 15 complete cervical cord injury individuals and 15 healthy subjects in different erected angles by a tilting table. This procedure will make us understand the response of sympathetic nerve activity to different postures in normal subjects and cervical cord injury patients. The third year, we will apply the measurement to 30 cerebrovascular accident patients to understand the change of sympathetic nerve activity after having a stroke. By comparing the clinical information, we hope to clear up the relationship between sympathetic nerve activity and pulse wave velocity.

This study aims to evaluate, in hemiparetic patients, changes in muscle ultrasound structure about the focal treatment of spasticity with botulinum toxin type A. For this purpose, the analysis of the mean echo intensity will be carried out on ultrasound acquisitions, identifying the possible correlations between the muscle echogenicity, the variations in the pennation angle, and the length of the fascicles. For image processing operations, ImageJ software was applied.

The cerebrovascular diseases can be approximately divided as two types, namely ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. Intravenous thrombolysis within 3-4.5 hours is highly recommended for acute ischemic stroke patients. But it's difficult to diagnose the ischemic stroke with the hemorrhagic stroke from the early symptoms and signs. It's with high risk of enlarging the hematoma if the patients with hemorrhagic stroke received the thrombolytic drugs. And time cost by CT or MRI examination is likely to responsible for missing the narrow time window and poor prognosis of stroke patients. Consequently, seeking for a noninvasive, rapid, portable and inexpensive diagnosis method which can sensitively distinguish the stroke type before CT or MRI examination would be very helpful in treating the ischemic stroke patients. Because of the blockage in the cerebral supply artery, the heat from circulatory system will sharply decrease in infracted hemisphere among the ischemic stroke patients. The reduced brain temperature influenced the temperature on the ipsilateral forehead according to the data of our animal and preliminary clinical trial. In contrast, the temperature of the ipsilateral hemisphere showed a mild increase among the ischemic stroke patients in our preliminary experiment. The difference of the temperature tendency on the ipsilateral forehead has a great chance to be an early physical mark. In our study, 30 ischemic stroke patients and 30 hemorrhagic stroke patients will be recruited. In the process of recruitment, the patients with acute stroke attack in no more than 4.5 hours will be collected the temperature at the five point without head coverage, including ipsilateral tempora, ipsilateral forehead, galbella, contralateral forehead, and contralateral tempora. Then the stroke would be recruited into the ischemic and hemorrhagic group according to the later CT or MRI results in the hospital. The accuracy and sensibility of early brain temperature in distinguishing stroke type would be tested in comparison with the diagnosis of imaging examination.

The primary objective of the study is to check the ability of Neurokeeper's algorithm system to detect and monitor changes in cerebral electrophysiological parameters as compared to clinical evaluation in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. The secondary objectives is correlations of EEG + ERP measurements with clinical evaluations as assessed by NIHSS ThiS study is a prospective, open label, single arm, self control, single center study. This study will be conducted in 50 subjects according to the inclusions/exclusions criteria.

40% of patients with Sleep Disorder Breathing (SDB) appearing during the acute phase of stroke show a respiratory pattern characterized by central apnoeas and/or periodic breathing. Clinical studies conducted in patients with hearth failure and central apnoeas have demonstrated the pathogenetic central role of hypersensitivity of central and peripheral chemoreceptors in association with baroreflex hypersensitivity, expression of hyperactivity of sympathetic nervous system. The joint study of chemoreflexes and baroreflexes in patients with central apneas during the acute and subacute phase of ischemic stroke represents, to our knowledge, a novelty in literature, that should supply useful elements to clarify the pathogenesis and the clinical and prognostic significance of these disorders. Investigators expect a difference in the analysis of the baroreflexes and chemoreflexes in patients with ischemic stroke/transient ischemic attack (TIA) and central apnoeas than patients with ischemic stroke not accompanied by respiratory problems and compared with healthy controls.

The purpose of this study is to determine choice of anticoagulant therapy during acute and chronic stages of ischemic stroke/TIA and short- and long-term outcomes, including stroke recurrence and bleeding complications, in patients having nonvalvular atrial fibrillation.

A prospective, multicenter, cohort study to explore the stroke mechanisms of symptomatic intracranial atherosclerosis, the dynamic changes under aggressive medical treatment and their associations with clinical events using conventional MRI sequences plus high-resolution magnetic resonance (HR-MRI).

In the rehabilitation of stroke patients, the emphasis is on the treatment of physical pathologies such as increased range of motion and muscle strength, reduction of spasticity and pain. All these treatments provide increased physical capacity of the patient. But these are not enough for perform the activity daily living. In order to be successful in activity daily living of the patient, performance based treatment methods should also be applied. The use of Canadian Occupational Performance Measurement (COPM), which measures patients' defined problem areas in daily practice should contribute to the patient-oriented approach process.

The purpose of this study is to characterize specific brain signals elicited by motor disturbances and errors in stroke patients. The patients will perform a motor task using both their affected and unaffected hands. There are two types of errors: low level errors and high level errors. While disturbances (low level errors) have been shown to elicit P300, uncorrectable actions (high level errors) have been shown to elicit ERN. These event related potentials (ERP) have been extensively studied in healthy subjects including a recent paper from our Lab.

In stroke survivors, atrial fibrillation is typically detected with short-term electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring in the stroke unit. Prolonged continuous ECG monitoring is impractical and requires substantial resources while insertable cardiac monitors are invasive and costly. Chest and thumb-ECG could provide an alternative for atrial fibrillation detection post-stroke. The primary objective of our study is to assess the incidence of newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation during 28 days of chest and thumb-ECG monitoring in patients with cryptogenic stroke. Secondary objectives are to assess Health-related Quality of Life using Short Form-36 and the feasibility of the Coala Heart Monitor in patients with stroke.