Stroke Clinical Trials

The use of simulators to retrain driving skills of patients with stroke, Parkinson's disease (PD), or multiple sclerosis (MS) is very limited because of cost, space required, and incidence of simulator sickness in high fidelity simulators. The Principal investigator recently developed a low cost low fidelity portable driving simulator (PDS). In this pilot study, the study team will (1) determine the ease of use and occurrence of simulator sickness while operating the low fidelity PDS in a clinic setting and (2) the efficacy of the low fidelity PDS to reproduce the benefits from retraining impaired driving skills of stroke survivors in a high-fidelity simulator. Participants: 30 participants, separated according to neurological condition including stroke, PD, or MS, will be randomly allocated to either the PDS or fixed-base high-fidelity simulator training. Each participant will undergo a pre-training evaluation, five hours of designated training and a post-training assessment, similar to the pre-training evaluation. Data will be analyzed according to study aims. The investigators hypothesize that the simple set up of the PDS will make it easier to use and better decrease the incidence of simulator sickness that typically leads to stopping therapy than the high-fidelity simulator. The investigators hypothesize that improvements in lane maintenance, adherence to speed limits, reaction to traffic lights, and overall reaction time after training using the PDS will not be significantly different from improvements observed after training using the high-fidelity driving simulator. Read Less

Stroke is the leading cause of serious, long-term disability. The emergence of abnormal muscle synergies following a stroke presents a major limitation to the recovery of independent function. Despite the development of many interventions for movement recovery post-stroke, rehabilitation treatments are minimally effective to the muscle synergy impairment. Previous studies have found that muscle synergy impairment is associated with the damage to the corticospinal tract and the maladaptive recruitment of the contralesional cortico-reticulospinal tract. The investigators hypothesize that facilitating the damaged cortico-spinal tract (via primary motor cortex) and/or inhibiting the contralesional cortico-reticulospinal tract (via dorsal premotor cortex) will reduce muscle synergy impairment. In this pilot project, the investigators propose to run a proof-of-concept pilot trial to evaluate the effect of the targeted high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) on mitigating muscle synergy impairment. Read Less

An observational study to determine if individuals with increased platelet FcyRIIa will have a higher risk of ischemic events. Read Less

This clinical trial will evaluate two non-surgical devices designed to improve eye lid opening for patients with severe Blepharoptosis (incomplete opening of the eyelids). Read Less

This study aims to examine the acceptability of patients and occupational therapists in following a mental practice protocol and examine the effects of mental practice with individuals with severe upper extremity hemiparesis (weakness) following a stroke. Mental practice is an adjunctive rehabilitation therapy that involves thinking about a motor task without actually moving. Research has shown that mental practice is a safe and feasible intervention that is effective in improving arm movements after a stroke. Patients in the study will participate in audio-guided mental practice, five days a week for two weeks, completing the following tasks: wiping a table and picking up a cup. The patients' ability to move their affected arm will be measured before and after the study to determine the effect of mental practice. Patients and occupational therapists will complete a survey to determine their feelings about performing or facilitating mental practice. The authors hypothesize that the majority of patients and occupational therapists will find mental practice to be feasible/acceptable for the recovery of the affected arm. Furthermore, we anticipate the majority of patients that complete the mental practice protocol will demonstrate improvements in their arm movements. Read Less

This study will assess the effects of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) on language recovery after stroke as well as healthy language functions. Read Less

In this research study, the investigators aim to test the usability and efficacy of the GaitBetter system for gait rehabilitation after stroke. Read Less

Investigators will determine the long-lasting effects of post-acute rehabilitation after traumatic brain injury and stroke. Investigators will also evaluate if the beneficial effects of rehabilitation continue after discharge from a rehabilitative program. Read Less

If a subject agrees to participate, the primary investigators will collect some basic information including age, height, and weight. Intake of some general questions regarding health and each subject will complete some tests that measure walking speed, cognition, and balance. During these tests participants will be asked to stand from a chair, walk up & down a staircase, walk over objects in a forward, backward, and sideways directions, walk around objects in forward and backward directions. After completing those tests, participants will be asked to repeat them while doing another task such as counting out loud, naming objects, or passing an object from one hand to another. At the end of the day, a step counter will be attached to each subject's ankle and you asked to wear it when awake for the next 7 days. Investigators expect that the evaluation will last 1 hour. After 7 days, subjects will return the step counter to the researchers and begin the exercise classes. The exercise classes will occur 2 days per week for 8 weeks. In the class participants will be asked to perform gentle exercises and use memory to improve brain functioning. Each class is expected to last 1 hour. At the conclusion of the exercise classes, investigators will again perform the gait, balance and cognitive tasks as we did before each started the class. Once a subject finishes all the exercise classes and testing, investigators will call one every week to see if you have had any falls at home. The calls will go on for 6 months. Read Less

The goal of this study is to develop a clinically feasible, low-cost, nonsurgical neurorobotic system for restoring function to motor-impaired stroke survivors that can be used at the clinic or at home. Moreover, another goal is to understand how physical rehabilitation assisted by robotic device combined with electroencephalograph (EEG) can benefit adults who have had stroke to improve functions of their weaker arm. The proposed smart co-robot training system (NeuroExo) is based on a physical upper-limb robotic exoskeleton commanded by a non-invasive brain machine interface (BMI) based on scalp EEG to actively include the participant in the control loop . The study will demonstrate that the Neuroexo smart co-robot arm training system is feasible and effective in improving arm motor functions in the stroke population for their use at home.The NeuroExo study holds the promise to be cost-effective patient-centered neurorehabilitation system for improving arm functions after stroke. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to assess the safety and efficacy of daily morning exposure to colored light in patients receiving acute inpatient rehabilitation services for stroke, traumatic brain injury, or non-traumatic brain injury with sleep disturbances such as poor nighttime sleep and/or excessive daytime sleepiness.In a two-arm randomized placebo-controlled study with pre-exposure and post-exposure assessments, we are comparing the effects of daily morning exposure to either blue light or red light on objective sleep quality, subjective sleep quality, functional rehabilitation outcomes, cognitive symptoms, fatigue, and neurological symptoms. Read Less

Determine the effects of sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG) block in post-stroke headache. Read Less