Brain Anatomy in Dystonia

Stopped early

Conditions studied: Dystonia, Healthy

In brief

This study will use high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to look for subtle differences in brain anatomy between patients with focal hand dystonia (also called writer s cramp) and healthy normal volunteers. Patients with hand dystonia have prolonged muscle contractions that cause sustained twisting movements and abnormal postures. These abnormal movements often occur with activities such as writing, typing, playing certain musical instruments such as guitar or piano, or playing golf or darts. Patients with focal hand dystonia and healthy volunteers will be enrolled in this study. Patients will be recruited from NINDS s database of patients with focal hand dystonia. Volunteers will be selected to match the patients in age, sex and handedness. This study involves two visits to the NIH Clinical Center. The first visit is a screening visit, in which patients and volunteers will have a medical history, physical examination, neurological examination, and assessment of handedness. Women of childbearing age will be screened with a pregnancy test. Pregnant women are exclude from this study. Those who join the study will return for a second visit for magnetic resonance imaging. MRI uses a magnetic field and radio waves to produce images of the brain. For the procedure, the participant lies still on a stretcher that is moved into the scanner (a narrow cylinder containing the magnet). Earplugs are worn to muffle loud noises caused by electrical switching of radio frequency circuits used in the scanning process. The scan will last about 45 to 60 minutes, at most. Some volunteers may be asked to return for a third visit to obtain a second MRI on a different scanner.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT00031369

Run by

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

People needed

189

Starts

2002-02-27

Expected to finish

2015-03-10

Last updated by the study team

2017-10-06

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may not qualify if…

• The following subjects will be excluded:
• Healthy volunteers with cognitive complaints, abnormal neurological exam or history of past neurological disease.
• Dystonia patients with the presence of a second neurological disease or condition; abnormal neurological findings on exam that are not related to primary focal dystonia.
• Subjects with past or present neuropsychiatric illness, head trauma with loss of consciousness, epilepsy, cerebro-vascular disease, migraine, past and present history of alcohol abuse, medical conditions that may alter cerebral structure.
• Subjects with abnormal MRI findings at visual inspection (prominent normal variants such as mega cisterna or cavum septum pellucidum, signs of severe cortical or subcortical atrophy, brain tumors, vascular diseases, trauma or AVMs).
• Subjects with any metallic objects within them just prior to MR imaging (cardiac or neural pacemaker, aneurysm clips [metal clips on the wall of a large artery], metallic prostheses [including heart valves and cochlear implants] or shrapnel fragments. Welders and metal workers are also at risk for injury and may not take part in the study because of possible small metal fragments in the eye of which they may be unaware.
• Subjects not capable of giving an informed consent.
• Women who are pregnant
• Children

Where it is running

• National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike — Bethesda, Maryland, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

Trial information comes from ClinicalTrials.gov and is refreshed daily. TrialsForMe does not provide medical care and does not run the studies it lists.