Stanford Comprehensive Epilepsy Program Clinical Trials

Title: Stimulation of the Anterior Nucleus of Thalamus

Purpose: Show safety and efficacy of stimulation of the anterior nucleus of thalamus for Medication-resistant partial and secondarily generalized seizures
Eligible: Patients over age 18 with uncontrolled partial epilepsy
Sponsor: Medtronic
Enrolling: No, study in long-term follow-up phase

Title: VNS Therapy Automatic Magnet Mode Outcomes Study In Epilepsy Patients Exhibiting Ictal Tachycardia

Purpose: Develop a vagus nerve stimulator that automatically turns on the stimulation cycle when heart rate increases by a certain amount, as it often does during seizures.
Eligible: Patients over age 12 with medication-resistant partial seizures who can benefit from a  vagus nerve stimulator, and who also have heart rate increase with seizures.
Sponsor: Cyberonics
Enrolling: Anticipated start 5/1/13

Title: Epilepsy Impact Scale

Purpose: To develop a concise questionnaire to measure the impact epilepsy has on a person’s life, with subscales for seizure impact, treatment side effect impact and comorbidity impact.
Eligible: Patients over 18 with at least 1 seizure in the past year
Sponsor: Stanford
Enrolling: by invitation

Title: Detection of Deep Brain Seizures in Comatose Patients

Purpose: Identify deep brain seizures, not evident by scalp EEG recording, in comatose or near- comatose patients
Eligible: Patients over 18 comatose in a Stanford ICU
Sponsor: Stanford
Enrolling: Anticipated start 5/1/13

Title: Thermography for Seizure Detection

Purpose: To passively record face temperature as a marker for seizures
Eligible: Patients in the Stanford Epilepsy Monitoring Unit
Sponsor: Stanford
Enrolling: Yes

Title: Lactic Acidosis During and After Seizures

Purpose: To chart the time course of lactic acid in blood and saliva after a seizure, in order to  determine whether it is a useful marker for notifying of a recent seizure.
Eligible: Patients in the Stanford Epilepsy Monitoring unit
Sponsor: Stanford
Enrolling: Yes

Title:  Retrospective review of EEG in Patients with Moya-Moya Disease

Purpose: To characterize EEG findings in patients with the brain blood vessel disease called Moya-Moya
Eligible: Anonymous record view of Stanford patients with Moya-Moya who had an EEG
Sponsor: Stanford
Enrolling: No, passive chart review