Brain Physiology in Polio Survivors
Completed
Conditions studied: Postpoliomyelitis
In brief
OBJECTIVE: Many persons who survive poliomyelitis develop pain, weakness, and fatigue many decades later. It is not known why some persons develop this syndrome and others do not. One possibility is that polio caused subclinical damage to the motor cortex. Autopsies in some polio patients have found damage to the brainstem and motor cortex as well as to spinal motor neurons. Alternatively, polio may have spared the motor cortex, but the cortex reorganized in different ways to compensate for the loss of spinal motor neurons. This study will first assess the integrity of central motor pathways in polio survivors with and without postpolio syndrome. The second goal will be to investigate differences in the intracortical mechanisms for controlling muscles affected and unaffected by polio. STUDY POPULATION: 60 patients who survived polio in childhood. Only patients with an unequivocal history of polio will be referred to this study. Half of the patients will have the post-polio syndrome. 30 normal volunteers, aged 21-75. DESIGN: Patients will be screened at the collaborating institution, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, which will also perform sensory evoked potential testing and MRI. At NIH, motor evoked potentials will be elicited from all four limbs using transcranial magnetic stimulation to assess central motor conduction time and threshold. Intracortical facilitation will be used to assess using paired-pulse magnetic stimulation. Two muscles will be tested in each patient, one affected by polio and one unaffected by polio. In the affected muscle, intracortical facilitation will be assessed again after exercises it until it fatigues. OUTCOME PARAMETERS: Cortical thresholds and central motor conduction times to all four limbs will be measured in patients and compared to normal subjects. The mean intracortical facilitation at rest will be compared in affected and unaffected muscles in polio patients with and without post-polio syndrome.
Key facts
- Study ID
- NCT00080600
- Run by
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
- People needed
- 90
- Starts
- 2004-04-06
- Expected to finish
- 2007-12-10
- Last updated by the study team
- 2017-07-02
Who can join
Age: 21 and older, up to 80. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.
You may not qualify if…
- Neurological diseases or conditions, other than polio, that in the judgment of the investigators may account for the symptoms or interfere with the experimental interventions.
- Implanted devices, such as pumps, pacemakers, or metal fragments in the skull or eye.
Where it is running
- Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences — Bethesda, Maryland, United States
- National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike — Bethesda, Maryland, United States
Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov
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