Brain Tissue Swelling and Seizure Activity in Inactive Cysticercosis
Completed
Conditions studied: Cysticercosis, Cysts, Seizures
In brief
This study will examine what causes seizures in patients with cysticercosis (pork tapeworm infection). A better understanding of this could lead to improved methods of controlling or preventing seizures. In humans, the pork tapeworm (Taenia solium) lives in the small intestine. The parasite's microscopic eggs travel around the body-including to the brain-where they develop into cysts. Usually, the cysts don't cause symptoms until they die. Then, they provoke an inflammatory reaction that irritates the brain, causing seizures and other symptoms. The inflammation eventually goes away, but the dead cysts remain. Calcium deposits often form where the cysts are. Some of the calcified cysts develop swelling around them that seem to be associated with the development of seizures. This study will explore how and why these dead, calcified cysts continue to cause seizures. In so doing, it will try to determine: 1) the best diagnostic imaging method for detecting swelling around the cysts; 2) how often swelling occurs; and 3) what makes some cysts prone to swelling and related seizure activity, while others are not. Patients with cysticercosis who have had seizures or who have known or possible swelling around calcified cysts will be studied with various tests, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) scans, electroencephalography (EEG), blood tests, and possibly lumbar puncture. Patients will be studied for two cycles of seizures (during active and quiet periods) or a maximum 4 years.
Key facts
- Study ID
- NCT00001912
- Run by
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
- People needed
- 6
- Starts
- 1999-08-10
- Expected to finish
- 2012-04-04
- Last updated by the study team
- 2017-07-02
Who can join
Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.
You may not qualify if…
- Less than 18 years of age.
- Pregnant or unwilling to use effective birth control measures.
- Refuse blood tests.
- Unwilling or unable to undergo testing according to the schedule.
- Unable to undergo MRI or CT examinations.
- Patients who require anesthesia to undergo imaging studies.
Where it is running
- National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike — Bethesda, Maryland, United States
- Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia — Lima, Peru
Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov
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