Clinical trial NCT00789347: Analysis of Cortical Excitability in Neuropathic Pain
Official title: Analysis of Cortical Excitability in Neuropathic Pain: an Electrophysiology Study.
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Conditions: Neuropathic Pain
Cortical Excitability
Keywords: Neuropathic pain
Cortical excitability
Transcranial magnetic stimulation
Contact Heat evoked potential
peripheral nerve stimulation
neurotrophic factors
Lead sponsor: National Taiwan University Hospital
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2008-11-11
Enrollment: 80
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 20
Maximum age (years): 65
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: CASE_CONTROL
Time perspective: CROSS_SECTIONAL
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Primary care clinic healthy volunteer

Brief summary: The purpose of this study is to determine whether patients with neuropathic pain has abnormal excitability in somatosensory cortex and abnormal sensory-motor connections.

Detailed description: There are several brain areas responsible for neuropathic pain reported in functional image studies, including primary sensory cortex, insula, and anterior cingulate gyrus. However, it is few informations about the functional status of these areas. Besides, the reason of the individual variability about the developement of neuropathic pain remains unknown. It is lack of satisfactory explanation about why some people developed neuropathic pain in certain diseased situation (for example, type 2 diabetes), while others do not.

We hypothesis that patients with neuropathic pain has abnormal cortical excitability and plasticity in certain brain area. Therefore developed neuropathic pain certain diseased condition while others not. Therefore, we will use multimodal electrophysiology tools,such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, peripheral nerve stimulation, and contact heat evoke potential to monitor the cortical excitability and plasticity non-invasively.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Healthy volunteers
* patients with pain resulted from dysfunction of peripheral or central nervous system
* the disorders of peripheral nerves are diagnosed by nerve conduction study, quantitative sensory test, quantification of skin innervation or contact heat evoked potentials
* lesion of central nervous system should be confirmed by neuroimage.

Exclusion Criteria:

* previous history of epilepsy, seizure disorders or major head injury
* previous brain surgery or intracranial metalic implant
* implanted devices as cardiac pacemaker
* pregnant subjects
* patient with severe cardiac or pulmonary disease who potentially cannot tolerate stress

Primary outcomes:
measure: Abnormal cortical excitability in motor-sensory cross-talk
timeFrame: non-applicable
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Genetic variability of neurotrophic factors between groups
timeFrame: non-applicable
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Taipei
country: Taiwan
facility: National Taiwan University Hospital
Study officials:
affiliation: National Taiwan University Hospital, Department of Neurology
name: Ming-Kai Pan, M.D.
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
affiliation: National Taiwan University Hospital, Department of Neurology
name: Chi-Chao Chao, M.D.
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
affiliation: National Taiwan University Hospital, Department of Neurology
name: Sung-Tsang Hsieh, M.D. PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: