Evaluating the Remote Effects of Stroke With MRI and PET Scans

Completed

• Conditions: Cerebrovascular Accident

• Registration Number: NCT00063180
• Lead Sponsor: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

Brief Summary

Patients with stroke sometimes have a condition called diaschisis, a loss of function in a part of the brain located some distance from the original stroke-injury site. Doctors do not know why this happens.

The purpose of this study is to get a better understanding as to why diaschisis occurs by studying people who have experienced a stroke and people who have aged in good health.

Forty-four participants who are older than 40 year of age will be enrolled in this study-18 healthy people and 26 stroke patients. They will have 3 to 4 study visits. The first visit will involve a medical history and a physical and neurological exam. Participants will then have a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, either on the first visit or on a later day. On the next visit, they will undergo a position emission tomography (PET) scan. Finally, they will return for another MRI scan.

Detailed Description

Objective: Following a stroke, not only is there dysfunction of the lesioned area, but there is also remote functional depression of non-lesioned areas. This functional depression, called diaschisis, likely contributes to the functional deficit of the patient.

The objective of this study is to obtain a better understanding of the pathophysiology of diaschisis with the integrated methods of neuroimaging (positron emission tomography (PET) and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H-MRS)).

Study population: We will recruit patients with subcortical stroke in the subacute state and in the chronic state, and normal controls.

Design: The stroke lesion will be the basal ganglia, internal capsule, thalamus, or cerebellum. The frontal cortex, including the motor cortex, is chosen as a remote area. Neurochemical changes in the diaschitic area will be investigated by measuring the glucose metabolic rate with PET, and concentrations of neurochemically important metabolites, such as gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate, with H-MRS.

Outcome measures: Metabolic change in the diaschitic areas relative to the contra-lateral unaffected side will be calculated as a laterality index. First, this index will be compared among patient groups and control group. As a second analysis, the relationship of glucose metabolism measured by PET and concentrations of the metabolites detected by H-MRS will be evaluated.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2003-06-19
• Study First Submitted: 2003-06-20
• Study First Submitted QC: 2003-06-20
• Study First Posted: 2003-06-23
• Status Verified: 2009-04-20
• Study Completion: 2009-04-20
• Last Update Submitted: 2017-06-30
• Last Update Posted: 2017-07-02

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 70

Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike; 🇺🇸 Bethesda, Maryland, United States