Clinical Trials

The purpose of this research study is to assess the efficacy of Dysport compared to placebo in improving muscle tone in hemiparetic subjects with lower limb spasticity due to stroke or traumatic brain injury.

The Stroke Hyperglycemia Insulin Network Effort (SHINE) Trial is a multicenter, randomized, controlled clinical trial of 1400 patients that will include approximately 60 enrolling sites. The study hypotheses are that treatment of hyperglycemic acute ischemic stroke patients with targeted glucose concentration (80mg/dL - 130 mg/dL) will be safe and result in improved 3 month outcome after stroke. Eligible subjects must be within 12 hours of stroke symptom onset and have diabetes and glucose concentrations of over 110 mg/dL on initial evaluation. The enrolling sites will include the Neurological Emergencies Treatment Trials (NETT) sites as well as non NETT sites from all over the United States. The study will evaluate the safety and efficacy of targeted glucose control (treatment group - IV insulin with target 80-130 mg/dl) verses control therapy of sub q insulin plus basal insulin with target glucose less than 180 mg/ dL. The primary outcome will be functional outcome at 3 months as measured by the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) Score. The primary safety outcome will be severe hypoglycemia defined as <40 mg/dL. Enrollment will occur over 3.5 - 4 years.

Activase, the study drug, is a fibrinolytic drug that is indicated for use in acute myocardial infarction, acute ischemic stroke, and acute massive pulmonary embolism in adults. Previous studies have established the ability of rt-PA to lyse venous thrombus in patients with deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and suggest that successful rt-PA mediated thrombolysis can prevent the post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS), a morbid, late complication of DVT that occurs in nearly 50% of patients. rt-PA is delivered directly into venous thrombus using a catheter/device which is embedded within the thrombus by a physician under imaging guidance. This method of rt-PA delivery, pharmacomechanical catheter-directed intrathrombus thrombolysis (PCDT),is thought to be safer, more effective, and more efficient than previous methods. The question of whether PCDT using rt-PA improves long-term DVT patient outcomes with acceptable risk and cost has not yet been addressed. The rationale for performing the ATTRACT Trial is based upon: - the major burden of PTS on DVT patients and the U.S. healthcare system - the association between rapid clot lysis and prevention of PTS - the proven ability of rt-PA to dissolve venous thrombus in proximal DVT - recent advances in CDT methods which may lower bleeding risk - the major clinical controversy on whether CDT should be routinely used for first-line DVT therapy

The purpose of this study is to assess whether a novel therapy approach (repetitive facilitative exercise (RFE)) is more effective than conventional rehabilitation in facilitating the recovery of upper extremity function following stroke.

Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) is the most deadly kind of stroke. Each year, 40,000 Americans have SAH. Case-fatality approaches 60% and more than half of those who die do so before reaching the hospital. Most commonly, SAH results from rupture of an intracranial aneurysm. Screening high-risk individuals could identify those at greatest risk and decrease the devastating effect of SAH. Aortic Aneurysm also constitutes a major public health problem with high lethality. Current estimates are that ruptured aortic aneurysm kills 13,000 Americans each year. Screening efforts have effectively lowered mortality from aortic aneurysm rupture but a high proportion of those who die did not have a diagnosis of aortic aneurysm prior to rupture.

     The relationship between intracranial and aortic aneurysm has long been recognized, but poorly quantified. Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) provide a molecular biological evidence for a shared pathophysiology.  The chromosome 9p21 locus confers increased risk for both intracranial aneurysms and aortic aneurysms. These GWAS data, along with linkage data for other susceptibility loci, indicate that individuals and families harboring one type of aneurysm may be at especially increased risk of the other.

     The rationale for this project is that opportunistic screening for abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) may be warranted in patients who present with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. This study is meant to see if the yield of screening in this population is too low to justify its routine use.  The investigators plan to systematically screen for AAA in all cases of aSAH presenting to MCH for treatment.  If no individual out of 81 consecutively screened cases of aSAH has evidence of AAA, then the investigators can have strong confidence that there is a less than 5% chance of finding an AAA in the patient population.