The Pathophysiology of Tourette Syndrome: a Multimodal Study

• Conditions: Tourette Syndrome

• Registration Number: NCT02497807
• Lead Sponsor: Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to characterize the functional and anatomical connectivity changes in Tourette syndrome and its relation with iron deficiency.

Detailed Description

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a childhood-onset chronic neuropsychiatric disorder with an increasing prevalence (range 0.05-3%).The investigators previous study showed that lower serum ferritin and iron levels in children with Tourette syndrome than in healthy children. The exact mechanism explaining how iron deficiency contributes to the pathophysiology of TS is unclear.One question is whether or not peripheral iron deficiency in children with Tourette syndrome can inflence the brain extrapyramid structure and resting state brain function？Another question is how well peripheral iron indices correlate with central iron content？ The third question is for TS children with peripheral iron deficiency, oral iron supplement (5mg/Kg/d) at least 8 weeks, the peripheral iron indicies return to normal levels, how the brain iron contents and the relative structure and brain function change?, To test the above-metioned hypothesis, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) , diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) are applied to investigate the volume change of extrapyramid structure such as caudate nucleus and putamen, resting-state brain function and brain iron content before and after oral iron supplementation in TS children with peripheral iron deficiency, TS children with peripheral normal iron levels and normal healthy controls. The investigators hope to confirm that iron deficiency may play a causal role in the dopamine metabolism and it helps to further explore the pathophysiology of Tourette syndrome and also would contribute to significant advance in the therapeutic option for TS children with peripheral iron deficiency.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2013-12
• Study First Submitted: 2014-05-13
• Study First Submitted QC: 2015-07-11
• Study First Posted: 2015-07-15
• Status Verified: 2016-04
• Last Update Submitted: 2016-04-26
• Last Update Posted: 2016-04-27
• Primary Completion: 2016-11
• Study Completion: 2017-04

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: UNKNOWN
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 40

Inclusion Criteria

• 6-12 years old
• Characterized by vocal tic and muscle twitch
• No positive signs was found through neurological examination, no significant psychomotor retardation,

Exclusion Criteria

• Hepatolenticular degeneration
• Rheumatic chorea
• Myoclonic epilepsy
• History of mental disease or brain trauma

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Amplitude of low frequency fluctuation of BOLD signal in Tourette syndrome and its relation with iron deficiency	two years	Amplitude of low frequency fluctuation of BOLD signal has proven to be a promising way to detect disease-related local brain activity.This study investigate ALFF in Tourette syndrome and provides insights into the pathological mechanism of Tourette syndrome

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Brain iron levels in Tourette syndrome	two years

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Second Affiliated Hospital,Zhejiang University,School of Medicine; 🇨🇳 Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China