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TerminatedNCT02877836IRMF-DIFFUpdated Dec 28, 2021

Functional MRI and DTI in the Preoperative Assessment of Dystonia

An interventional study of magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in Isolated Cervical Dystonia, Complex Dystonia and Spasticity, sponsored by University Hospital, Montpellier. Terminated at 1 site in France. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 84 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2021-12-28.

Sponsored by University Hospital, Montpellier · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other

Why this study was terminated
end of inclusion period and difficulties on recruitment of one patient group

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 1 year 9 months after the study started (first participant enrolled Sep 2014, registered Jul 2016).
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
36
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
18 Years to 84 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The aim of this study is to evaluate the organization of the motor circuit in a group of patients suffering from dystonia compared with a group of healthy controls. Deep Brain stimulation is a functional neurosurgery technique consisting in neuromodulation of the motor circuit that has been applied to dystonia. The efficiency of this technique depends on the relative preservation of the function and the structure of the motor network .

The assessment of neuronal circuit by advanced techniques of functional neuroimaging in this study might contribute to expand our understanding of the abnormalities in motor circuit activation and the integrity of CNS structure underlying dystonia. This study might contribute therefore to the refinement of Deep brain stimulation indications and techniques in complex dystonia syndromes

Read the detailed description

Advances in the field of functional neurosurgery, neuroradiology and virus neuronal tracing studies have expanded our knowledge of the circuits underlying the clinical expression of several neurologic syndromes. Globus pallidus internus (GPi) Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a validated technique for the treatment of 'isolated dystonia'. The efficiency of this therapy in 'complex dystonia', commonly associated with focal brain lesions, is limited and heterogeneous. Broadening indications for DBS therapy to complex DDS disorders require further improvement of preoperative assessment of motor circuit functional reorganization and white matter integrity. The efficacy of neuromodulation in these clinical syndromes is determined by the severity of pyramidal involvement, the interactions between cortico-striato-pallido-thalamic and cerebello-thalamo-cortical circuits and motor network reorganization at the cortical level.

The aim of the study is to identify movement-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activation patterns in a group of dystonic patients in comparison to healthy controls (HC). Further analysis will assess the recruitment pattern in different patient subgroups defined according to clinical and radiological criteria relevant to GPi DBS eligibility (hyperkinetic/ hypokinetic and prepallidal/ postpallidal). Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) will be applied to the assessment of the topographic distribution and severity of white matter lesions in the group of dystonic patients in comparison with HC.

Further knowledge concerning motor network organization and white matter integrity after focal brain lesions might contribute to the understanding of this mitigated response to DBS and to the refinement of DBS indications and techniques in secondary dystonia

02

Conditions studied

  • Isolated Cervical Dystonia
  • Complex Dystonia
  • Spasticity

Keywords

  • Dystonia
  • fMRI
  • DTI
  • DBS
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In context

Dystonia

319 studies on the registry are indexed under Dystonia; 56 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 36 is above the median of 32 across 181 interventional studies indexed under Dystonia.

Browse Dystonia studies →

Lead sponsor

University Hospital, Montpellier is the lead sponsor of 1,244 studies on the registry; 225 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 84 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

  • Age limits ≥ 18 et \< 85 years
  • Right-handed patients/healthy controls, according to Edinburgh Handedness Inventory
  • The participating subjects must be affiliated to the French public health system
  • Written consent to participate in this study

For the patients

  • Patients affected by isolated or complex dystonia admitted to hospital in the Unit of Functional Neurosurgery in order to assess eligibility for deep cerebral stimulation therapy
  • Ability to understand the instructions to perform the experimental paradigm (the motor task) used in the design of the functional MRI

For the healthy control subjects :

  • Absence of current neurologic pathology
  • Absence of personal history of neurologic pathology, including perinatal anoxic injury, meningitis, vascular, metabolic, inflammatory pathology, epilepsy, cranial trauma with loss of consciousness or with associated neurological symptoms.
  • Absence of orthopaedic injury in the upper limbs

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Non Specific criteria

    • Contraindication for the realization of a MRI (pacemaker, valve prothesis non compatible with MRI, cochlear implant, aneuvrysmal clip, presence of an Intra-ocular metallic foreign object or coronary endoprosthesis)
    • Pregnancy, breastfeeding
    • Adults protected by the law
  • Non Specific criteria • Severe dyskinesia preventing the realization of motor task during functional MRI without general anesthesia
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Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Other
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
36 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Other
    Segmentary dystonia

    to identify movement-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activation patterns

    Other: magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

  • Other
    Hemidystonia

    to identify movement-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activation patterns

    Other: magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

  • Other
    Generalized dystonia

    to identify movement-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activation patterns

    Other: magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

  • Other
    Healthy control subjects

    to identify movement-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activation patterns

    Other: magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

Interventions

  • Othermagnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

    To identify movement-related fMRI activation pattern in dystonic patients in comparison to healthy controls Assessment of white matter integrity in the corticospinal tract in a group og dystonic patients compared with the healthy control group

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Integrity of Motor circuit reorganization in dystonia

    All the subjects participating in the study will undergo a Functional MRI study with a 'box and block' design comparing brain activity during the execution of a motor task and rest. Resting state fMRI will also be recorded. Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM8) software will be used in order to perform spatially extended statistical processes to test the hypothesis whether there is a difference between both groups in functional imaging data. This analysis will provide a statistical map showing the clusters of brain activation where there is a significant difference between the group of dystonic patients and the group of healthy controls

    Time frame: 1 day

  2. Integrity of corticospinal tract white matter in dystonia

    Fractional anisotropy (FA) is a measure derived of Diffusion tensor imaging that quantifies the degree of directionality of the local tract structure. This parameter is considered to be a marker for white matter tract integrity. FSL software will be used to analyse Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) data 1. Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) will be used to obtain a voxelwise statistical map comparing fractional anisotropy in the major tracts in the group ot dystonic patients and the group of healthy controls. 2. Probabilistic tractography will be used to obtain tract-derived DTI parameters in the corticospinal and thalamocortical tracts that will be correlated with clinical scales (Burke-Fahn-Marsden Dystonia scale). Several DTI parameters will be analysed: mean fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, parallel and perpendicular diffusivity

    Time frame: 1 day

Secondary outcomes

  1. Movement-related fMRI activation pattern in dystonic patients

    To identify movement-related fMRI activation pattern in different subgroups of dystonic patients classified following clinical (hyperkinetic versus hypokinetic) and radiologic criteria (prepallidal versus postpallidal lesions) Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM8) software will be used to test the hypothesis whether patients with different clinical phenotypes (hyperkinetic versus hypokinetic) or patients with different radiologic presentation (prepallidal versus postpallidal lesions) show significant differences in the pattern of brain activation related to the execution of a motor task. This analysis will provide a statistical map showing the clusters of brain activation where there is a significant difference between both groups

    Time frame: 1 day

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Study locations

1 site
  • CHU de Montpellier
    Montpellier, 34 295, France
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References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Dec 28, 2021, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT02877836
Lead sponsor
University Hospital, Montpellier
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Aug 24, 2016
Start date
Sep 19, 2014
Primary completion
Jun 3, 2016
Completion
Jun 3, 2016
Last update
Dec 28, 2021

Study contacts

Victoria Gonzalez, MD PhD
principal investigator · CHU de Montpellier

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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This study is terminated, as verified in Dec 2021. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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