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Brain Tissue Swelling and Seizure Activity in Inactive Cysticercosis

NCT00001912 · Status: COMPLETED · Type: OBSERVATIONAL · Enrollment: 6

Last updated 2017-07-02

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

This study will examine what causes seizures in patients with cysticercosis (pork tapeworm infection). A better understanding of this could lead to improved methods of controlling or preventing seizures.

In humans, the pork tapeworm (Taenia solium) lives in the small intestine. The parasite's microscopic eggs travel around the body-including to the brain-where they develop into cysts. Usually, the cysts don't cause symptoms until they die. Then, they provoke an inflammatory reaction that irritates the brain, causing seizures and other symptoms. The inflammation eventually goes away, but the dead cysts remain. Calcium deposits often form where the cysts are. Some of the calcified cysts develop swelling around them that seem to be associated with the development of seizures.

This study will explore how and why these dead, calcified cysts continue to cause seizures. In so doing, it will try to determine: 1) the best diagnostic imaging method for detecting swelling around the cysts; 2) how often swelling occurs; and 3) what makes some cysts prone to swelling and related seizure activity, while others are not.

Patients with cysticercosis who have had seizures or who have known or possible swelling around calcified cysts will be studied with various tests, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) scans, electroencephalography (EEG), blood tests, and possibly lumbar puncture. Patients will be studied for two cycles of seizures (during active and quiet periods) or a maximum 4 years.

Conditions

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

    lead NIH

Principal Investigators

  • Henry Masur, M.D. · National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC)

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
1999-08-10
Completion
2012-04-04

Countries

  • United States
  • Peru

Study Locations

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Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT00001912 on ClinicalTrials.gov