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Spinal Cord InjuryNCT02163551

Respiratory Event-Related Potentials in Patients With Spinal Cord Injury

An observational study of Spinal Cord Injury, run by University of North Carolina, Charlotte at 2 sites in United States.

Terminated

Stopped early. The study ended before it was planned to and will not resume.

Official record
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Trial summary

Dyspnea is "a subjective experience of breathing discomfort that consists of qualitatively distinct sensations that vary in intensity". It is known that sensory information from the respiratory system activates regions of the cerebral cortex to produce the perception of dyspnea but far less is known about the… Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 30 to 60 yearsHealthy volunteers can take part
Conditions the study is for
Spinal Cord Injury
How many people
14 participants
Where
2 sitesUnited States
Study dates
Jun 2014to Nov 2016
Phase
Observational
Are there results?
None posted in the registry

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 30 to 60 years
  • All sexes
  • Healthy volunteers accepted
  • Adult

Study population: Patients with spinal cord injury will participate in an initial enrollment session at Carolinas Rehabilitation. Patients will be recruited from a registry managed by Dr. Lieberman. Healthy volunteers will be recruited through e-mail solicitation for volunteers for a project examining breathing sensations distributed to faculty, students, and staff in the College of Health and Human Services.

Who may be able to join

  • Participants with spinal cord injury (n = 20) will be age 30-60 years with motor complete spinal cord injuries, otherwise known as American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) classification A or B, between the levels of C3 and T12. Subjects will be divided equally into four different injury level categories. The four categories are high tetraplegia (C3 - C5), low tetraplegia (C6-C8), high paraplegia (T1-T6), and low paraplegia (T7-T12). Twenty healthy age-matched adults will also participate.

Who cannot join

  • History or presence of lung disease (asthma, chronic bronchitis, etc)
  • Current smoker (more than one cigarette per day the past year)
  • History of traumatic brain injury, epilepsy, or seizure; using psychotropic medication of any type
  • And, if patient, more than six months since spinal cord injury and clinically stable.

Trial locations and contacts

2 sites in 1 country.

United States2 sites
  • Spinal Cord Injury Medicine, Carolinas Rehabilitation

    Charlotte, North Carolina, 28203

  • UNC Charlotte

    Charlotte, North Carolina, 28223

Other trials in United States

About this study

Official title: Respiratory Event-Related Potentials in Patients With Spinal Cord Injury: An Evaluation of Somatosensory Afferents

Dyspnea is "a subjective experience of breathing discomfort that consists of qualitatively distinct sensations that vary in intensity". It is known that sensory information from the respiratory system activates regions of the cerebral cortex to produce the perception of dyspnea but far less is known about the neurophysiology of dyspnea than about vision, hearing, or even pain. Dyspnea likely arises from multiple nervous system sources, but the exact locations have not been well identified. Investigations of the mechanisms underlying respiratory sensations have included studies of airway anesthesia, chest wall strapping, exercise, heart-lung transplantation, hyperventilation, and opioid use. Study of the perception of breathing sensations in individuals with a spinal cord injury presents additional opportunity. The goal of the proposed project is to examine the effects of increasingly severe levels of spinal cord injury on the perception of breathing sensations in participants who are able to breathe without the use of a ventilator. The investigators hypothesize that the perception of breathing varies with the extent of somatosensory information that reaches cerebral cortex.

Read the detailed description

Dyspnea is "a subjective experience of breathing discomfort that consists of qualitatively distinct sensations that vary in intensity." Dyspnea, or shortness of breath, is a common problem affecting up to half of hospitalized patients; and "shortness of breath" and "labored or difficult breathing" accounts for 3 to 4 million emergency department visits annually. Dyspnea can represent a sensation, a symptom, or an illness. Each set of experiences involves distinct sensory, perceptual, and cognitive processes, including: the detection of signals; the perception of threat or remarkable challenge; and, the construction, or mental representation, of illness. As a sensory experience dyspnea can be compared to the sensation of pain. Although labored breathing is not painful in the usual sense of the word dyspnea, like pain, is a concept varying along multiple dimensions. Like pain, dyspnea can signal the need for medical attention; but unlike pain dyspnea is a localized sensation originating in the cardiopulmonary system rather than a generalized danger signal.

Research demonstrates that sensory information from the respiratory system activates regions of the cerebral cortex to produce the perception of dyspnea but far less is known about the neurophysiology of dyspnea than about vision, hearing, or even pain. Dyspnea likely arises from multiple nervous system sources. Investigations of the mechanisms underlying respiratory sensations have included studies of airway anesthesia, chest wall strapping, exercise, heart-lung transplantation, hyperventilation, and opioid use. Study of the perception of breathing sensations in individuals with a spinal cord injury presents additional opportunity. The goal of the proposed project is to examine the effects of increasingly severe levels of spinal cord injury on the perception of breathing sensations in participants who are able to breathe without the use of a ventilator.

Afferent pathways that transmit somatosensory signals to the central nervous system (i.e., brain and spinal cord) are well described and event-related potentials have been used to measure respiratory somatosensation with high temporal resolution. Event-related potentials (ERPs) are time-locked cortical signals that are measured non-invasively from the surface of the scalp in response to brief (< 200 msec), presentations of respiratory stimuli during normal breathing. Davenport et al. first identified sensory-perceptual ERPs to inspiratory stimuli (those occurring about 50-150 msec after stimulus delivery) and Harver et al. first examined perceptual-cognitive ERPs to inspiratory stimuli (those occurring about 150-400 msec post-stimulus). Study of respiratory-related ERPs in patients with spinal cord injuries presents a rare opportunity to examine the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the perception of breathing because the extent of somatosensory information that reaches cerebral cortex varies with level of lesion.

Keywords
dyspnea, respiratory sensation, event-related potentials, spinal cord injury
Medical subject headings
Spinal Cord Injuries, Dyspnea

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

Study groups in NCT02163551
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
Spinal Cord InjuryParticipants with spinal cord injury (n = 20) will be age 30-60 years with motor complete spinal cord injuries, otherwise known as American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) classification A or B, between the levels of C3 and T12. Patients will have to be able to breathe independently without the use of a ventilator. Subjects will be divided equally into four different injury level categories. The four categories are high tetraplegia (C3 - C5), low tetraplegia (C6-C8), high paraplegia (T1-T6), and low paraplegia (T7-T12).
ControlsTwenty healthy age-matched adults will also participate.

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. Event-Related Potentials

    To record event-related potentials, surface electrodes will be attached with electrode collars and paper tape. Electrodes will be positioned at Fz (frontal midline), Cz (central midline), Pz (parietal midline), 1 cm below the center of the right eye to monitor eye movements, on the right mastoid (reference site), and on the forehead (ground site).

    Measured: Baseline, 2-3 hours

Secondary outcomes (1)
  1. General Health Status

    Participants will complete general and respiratory health histories, a standardized Respiratory Disease Questionnaire, and a measure of quality of life (SF-36).

    Measured: Baseline,1 hour

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted13 Jun 2014 (estimated)
  2. Study startJun 2014
  3. Primary completionNov 2016
  4. Study completionNov 2016

Why it stopped: Recurrent equipment failures (used with custom EEG and ERP recording software) precluded timely data collection and analysis activities.

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Observational
Observational model
Case-control
Time perspective
Cross-sectional
Enrolment
14 participants (actual)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT02163551
Sponsor's protocol ID
13-07-09
Status last verified
Oct 2017
First submitted
10 Jun 2014
Last updated
30 Oct 2017
Results posted
No
Data monitoring committee
Yes

Publications

  • Parshall MB, Schwartzstein RM, Adams L, Banzett RB, Manning HL, Bourbeau J, Calverley PM, Gift AG, Harver A, Lareau SC, Mahler DA, Meek PM, O'Donnell DE; American Thoracic Society Committee on Dyspnea. An official American Thoracic Society statement: update on the mechanisms, assessment, and management of dyspnea. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2012 Feb 15;185(4):435-52. doi: 10.1164/rccm.201111-2042ST.

    PubMed 22336677
  • Bloch-Salisbury E, Harver A, Squires NK. Event-related potentials to inspiratory flow-resistive loads in young adults: stimulus magnitude effects. Biol Psychol. 1998 Sep;49(1-2):165-86. doi: 10.1016/s0301-0511(98)00034-9.

    PubMed 9792492
  • Harver A, Squires NK, Bloch-Salisbury E, Katkin ES. Event-related potentials to airway occlusion in young and old subjects. Psychophysiology. 1995 Mar;32(2):121-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1995.tb03303.x.

    PubMed 7630976
  • Bloch-Salisbury E, Harver A. Effects of detection and classification of resistive and elastic loads on endogenous event-related potentials. J Appl Physiol (1985). 1994 Sep;77(3):1246-55. doi: 10.1152/jappl.1994.77.3.1246.

    PubMed 7836128
  • Davenport PW, Friedman WA, Thompson FJ, Franzen O. Respiratory-related cortical potentials evoked by inspiratory occlusion in humans. J Appl Physiol (1985). 1986 Jun;60(6):1843-8. doi: 10.1152/jappl.1986.60.6.1843.

    PubMed 3722053

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

An observational study of Spinal Cord Injury, run by University of North Carolina, Charlotte at 2 sites in United States.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 1 inclusion and 4 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: stopped early, as of the sponsor's last update on 30 Oct 2017. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 2 sites in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

The study was stopped early (reason given: Recurrent equipment failures (used with custom EEG and ERP recording software) precluded timely data collection and analysis activities.). Results are not available in the source record.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

Event-Related Potentials (time frame: Baseline, 2-3 hours). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT02163551, which also lists 5 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 30 Oct 2017.

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