Electrophysiological Studies in Patients with Spinal Electrodes v1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Electrophysiological Studies in Patients with Spinal Epidural Electrodes
IRAS ID
67977
Contact name
Stuart N Baker
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospital
Research summary
This study aims to investigate the mechanisms of action of spinal cord stimulation(SCS) in humans. SCS is nowadays an established treatment for the management of pain and recent experimental evidence demonstrates that can restore locomotion in animal models of Parkinson’s disease. However, the neural changes induced by SCS are poorly understood. There is important amount of evidence supporting the active role of the central nervous system (CNS) and its structures in filtering, selecting and modulating inputs that at the same time contribute in triggering central neural changes. While the normal function of the CNS leads to adaptive neuroplasticity, alterations on any of the CNS structures can lead to abnormal function of the processing chain resulting in pathological states. Further research on the interactions between pathological related CNS changes and SCS effects not only will contribute to understand the mechanisms that underlie pathological neuroplasticity but also may lead to improvements in SCS treatment.
Patients with electrodes temporally connected to an external stimulating device, undergoing a trial period of stimulation before proceeding to insertion of an implanted pulse generator, offer the ideal opportunity to address these questions.
Patients will be referred to our laboratory, based at Newcastle University. Patients will be required to attend the laboratory for one experimental session aimed at assessing the modulation of behavioural, muscular, cortical and spinal responses with non-invasive peripheral, cortical, and spinal stimulation in pathologic and normal conditions. All the techniques used during the experiment have been safely used in basic science for decades and our laboratory uses them at the everyday basis. Such approach will allow advancing in understanding the distributed effects of SCS on the CNS.
This study is funded by The Wellcome Trust.REC name
North East - Tyne & Wear South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/NE/0184
Date of REC Opinion
12 Aug 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion