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RecruitingNCT03676439Updated Nov 21, 2023

Lateral Cord Magnetic Stimulation For Refractory Spastic Cerebral Palsy

A Phase 2/3 interventional study of Magnetic Spinal Stimulation in Spastic Cerebral Palsy and Dysarthria, sponsored by Sociedad Argenttina de Neuromodulación. Recruiting at 1 site in Argentina. Open to participants aged 16 Years to 50 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2023-11-21.

Sponsored by Sociedad Argenttina de Neuromodulación · Phase 2/3, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Primary completion was expected by Nov 2025, 1 year ago, but the record still lists the study as recruiting.
Phase
Phase 2/3
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
20
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
16 Years to 50 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Lateral cord stimulation (LCS) was discovered by the author as the producer of an average threshold increase for abnormal muscle contraction responses, in experimental pathological conditions, as described and referred.

This physiological effect is proposed to improve tone, motor function and speech, in patients with spasticity of different causes, such as cerebrovascular accident, congenital brain malformations, perinatal anoxia (image called cerebral palsy), sequels of neurosurgery, etc.

Due to its non-invasiveness and possible efficacy, the use of magnetic stimulation is proposed to try to demonstrate its therapeutic utility.

This is the clinical test of phase 2/3 of the method, in the future, and how its use could be extended, if the results were positive, its indications could be extended to other pathological conditions, giving a greater spectrum of spastic patients, potentially benefited

Read the detailed description

Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a chronic and non-progressive morbid disease that affects psychomotor development, with multiple etiologies that share a common condition of acquired perinatal anomalies during development.

The manifestations are multiple and varied, with more frequent motor disorders, speech disorders, mental retardation, spasticity, dystonia, etc.. About a third of these patients have a normal IQ, for whom those signs are more disabling than for others, and for refractory speech problems there is no therapy available These subjects have generally been unsuccessfully treated with medications, botulinum toxin injections, rehabilitation or kinesic orthosis, maintaining their abnormal stable conditions at the end of childhood or early adulthood.

The rational for this clinical trial is that the author has demonstrated the reduction of the excitability threshold of the nociceptive response by electrically stimulating the lateral spinal cord in an animal model, therefore, its possible beneficial action on abnormal muscle tone, somatic motor functions and improvement of speech, by this method.

Spastic Cerebral Palsy has been chosen as a targeted population, because it use to be a chronic and irreversible condition with few therapeutic options, ineffective and frequent complications.

It is of ancient knowledge that electric currents can alter the functions of the Nervous System In the last decades there was a refinement of these techniques of stimulation, being able to emphasize especially the Transcranial or Spinal Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). This therapeutic method, developed in the eighties, is able to modulate brain activity, through the stimulation of limited cortical or spinal areas, with minimal side effects, which is applied through a coil that produces an alternating electrical current.

The constant change of orientation of this alternating current generates a powerful electromagnetic field, capable of crossing the cranial scalp and the skull bone or the osteo-ligamentary structures and originating an electric current restricted to small areas of the brain, cerebellum or spinal cord The objective of the present clinical trial is to demonstrate the therapeutic effect of focal stimulation of the spinal cord in speech and motor function assessed by Modifyied Aschworth sacale and speech, evaluated through Functional Independence Measure (FIM) Scale, selected cases of spastic CP The rational is to focus the magnetic impact on the lateral surface of the spinal cord, trying to stimulate the spinocerebellar tracts, because of its superficial location, therefore, more accessible.

02

Conditions studied

  • Spastic Cerebral Palsy
  • Dysarthria

Keywords

  • Lateral Cord Stimulation
  • Disability
  • Magnetic Stimulation
  • Spasticity
  • Spinal Cord Stimulation
03

In context

Cerebral Palsy

1,936 studies on the registry are indexed under Cerebral Palsy; 458 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 20 is below the median of 34 across 1,431 interventional studies indexed under Cerebral Palsy.

Browse Cerebral Palsy studies →

Lead sponsor

This is the only study on the registry with Sociedad Argenttina de Neuromodulación as lead sponsor.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
16 Years to 50 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Age 16 years or older.
  • Spastic Cerebral Palsy with stable condition.
  • Motor disability unilateral or predominantly unilateral.
  • Clinically evident speech disorders.
  • Normal or slightly subnormal intellectual coefficient (I.Q 80 or more)
  • Absence of psychiatric disorders

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Cardiac or severe respiratory disorders.
  • Steady abnormal postures (except possible orthopedic surgical correction)
  • Recurrent chronic bronchial or pulmonary infections.
  • Psychiatric disorders
  • Chronic recurrent urinary infections
  • Severe osteoporosis in affected limbs
  • Chronic skin ulcers
  • Drug addiction.
  • Episodes of Status Epileptucus
  • Personal history, or in close relatives, of medical legal complaint
05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2 / Phase 3
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Double (Participant, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
20 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    Treated Arm: Magnetic Spinal Stimulation plus PKT

    Three months of kinesthetic and phoniatric treatment, and Magnetic Spinal Stimulation, 80% of the cervical muscles's motor threshold, 100 pulses at 10Hz, lasting 10 seconds, repeated during 30 minutes, twice a week for 3 months on cervical lateral location, focalized on the Lateral Spinal Cord.

    Device: Magnetic Spinal Stimulation

  • Placebo comparator
    Sham comparator

    They will receive kinesthetic and phoniatric treatment, and during 3 months,with equal periodicity, they will receive a sensible false magnetic stimulation, of equal localization that other arm, with insufficient intensity, to blind clinical experience.

    Device: Magnetic Spinal Stimulation

Interventions

  • DeviceMagnetic Spinal Stimulation

    Spinal Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) on Lateral Cord Stimulation (LCS), in the search of the improvement of the tone, motor function and speech, in patients with spastic cerebral Palsy. Due to its non-invasiveness and possible efficacy, the use of Magnetic Spinal Stimulation is proposed to try to prove its therapeutic usefulness. This is the phase 2/3 clinical test of the method, in the future, and as its use could be extended, if the results were positive, its indications could be extended to other pathological conditions, giving a greater spectrum of spastic patients, potentially benefited.

    Also known as: Neuromodulation

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Changes in Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS)

    Scale evaluationg muscle stiffness, from 0(normal) to 5 (maximal rigidity). It wiil be employed to evaluate the spasticity related to limbs.

    Time frame: One pre interventional and monthly - up to three months - post interventional

  2. Changes in Functional Independence measure (FIM) for the speech.

    The FIM measures what an individual can perform - Only the ability for communication, comprehension and expression, will be evaluated to assess speech changes

    Time frame: One pre interventional and monthly - up to three months - post interventional

Secondary outcomes

  1. Changes in Barthel's Scale

    The Barthel Index for Activities of Daily Living (ADL) assesses functional independence, into 10 activities of daily living. Values range from 0 -100, will be investigated to evaluate whole functional changes

    Time frame: One pre interventional and monthly - up to three months - post interventional

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • Centro de Rehabilitación San Juan de Dios
    Hurlingham, Buenos Aires 1686, Argentina
    Recruiting
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Andreani JC, Guma C. Lateral cord stimulation decreases spastic electromyographic spreading: responses in a brain-damaged pig preparation. Neuromodulation. 2008 Jul;11(3):202-7. doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1403.2008.00167.x. PubMed 22151097 ↗
  • Abdeen MA, Stuchly MA. Modeling of magnetic field stimulation of bent neurons. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 1994 Nov;41(11):1092-5. doi: 10.1109/10.335848. PubMed 8001998 ↗
  • Andreani, JCM, Guma C. Lateral Cord Stimulation (LCS) to relieve spasticity experimental protocol and results. Proceedings of the 10th Conference of the International Federation of Electrical Stimulation (IFESS) Montreal-Canada, July 4-8th 2005. pp 153-5.
  • Duchenne de Boulogne. De l'électrisation localisée et de son application à la physiologie, à la pathologie et à la thérapeutique (3e édition). Librairie JB Bailiere et fils. Paris. 1872.
  • Koy A, Pauls KA, Flossdorf P, Becker J, Schonau E, Maarouf M, Liebig T, Fricke O, Fink GR, Timmermann L. Young adults with dyskinetic cerebral palsy improve subjectively on pallidal stimulation, but not in formal dystonia, gait, speech and swallowing testing. Eur Neurol. 2014;72(5-6):340-8. doi: 10.1159/000360984. Epub 2014 Oct 14. PubMed 25322688 ↗
  • Lefaucheur JP. Methods of therapeutic cortical stimulation. Neurophysiol Clin. 2009 Feb;39(1):1-14. doi: 10.1016/j.neucli.2008.11.001. Epub 2008 Nov 29. PubMed 19268842 ↗
09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Start is estimated for Nov 2024; primary completion for Nov 2025, 11 months later.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Sep 4, 2018
First posted
Sep 18, 2018
StartEst.
Nov 18, 2024
Primary completionEst.
Nov 1, 2025
CompletionEst.
Mar 26, 2026
Last update
Nov 21, 2023
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Nov 21, 2023, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03676439
Lead sponsor
Sociedad Argenttina de Neuromodulación
Collaborators
Hospital "San Juan de Dios" - Hurlingham - Argentina, Provincial Perogram of Neuromodulation (Pcia Buenos Aires) Argentina
Responsible party
Juan Carlos M. Andreani MD (MD, Sociedad Argenttina de Neuromodulación) — Principal investigator
First posted
Sep 18, 2018
Start date
Nov 18, 2024 (estimated)
Primary completion
Nov 1, 2025 (estimated)
Completion
Mar 26, 2026 (estimated)
Last update
Nov 21, 2023

Study contacts

Juan Carlos M Andreani, MD
Contact
jcmandreani@gmail.com
0111550531392
Juan Carlos M Andreani, MD
study director · CENIT Foundation & Sociedad Argentina de Neuromodulación
Werner Braunsdorf, MD
principal investigator · Klinik von Magdeburg - Germany
Wojciech Maksymowicz, MD
principal investigator · University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn- Poland
Tommaso Tufo, MD
principal investigator · Policlinico A. Gemelli University Hospital Foundation - Rome - Italy

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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