Clinical trials

Postoperative pain remains highly prevalent and inadequately managed in a significant proportion of surgical patients, often leading to delayed recovery, increased opioid consumption, and potential progression to chronic pain. While perioperative systemic dexamethasone is used for its anti-inflammatory and opioid-sparing effects, its efficacy is inconsistent, and concerns regarding systemic side effects persist. Dexamethasone palmitate, a novel lipophilic prodrug formulated as nanoparticle emulsion, leverages the enhanced permeability and retention effect to target inflammatory sites selectively, potentially offering superior anti-inflammatory and analgesic efficacy with reduced systemic exposure. This trial aims to evaluate whether preoperative intravenous dexamethasone palmitate is more effective than conventional dexamethasone in preventing moderate-to-severe postoperative pain.

This Phase 2b study will evaluate whether lesion network mapping-guided continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) can improve recovery after acute ischemic stroke. The treatment uses each participant's brain imaging to identify individualized stimulation targets related to stroke symptoms. Participants will receive either active cTBS or a sham procedure in addition to standard stroke care. The study will assess the efficacy and safety of this personalized brain stimulation approach and support planning for future confirmatory trials.

This Phase 3 study will evaluate whether lesion network mapping-guided continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) can improve recovery after acute ischemic stroke. The treatment uses each participant's brain imaging to identify individualized stimulation targets related to stroke symptoms. Participants will receive either active cTBS or a sham procedure in addition to standard stroke care. The study will assess whether this personalized brain stimulation approach improves functional recovery and is safe for patients after ischemic stroke.

What's the clinical value of high-density flexible microelectrocorticography (μECoG) for guiding the resection of epileptogenic zone (EZ) in epilepsy surgery?

Disorders of consciousness are common after surgery for severe spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage and are associated with high mortality, disability, and long-term dependence. Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) is a noninvasive neuromodulation technique that may enhance arousal-network activity, modulate secondary brain injury, and promote recovery of consciousness. This multicenter, prospective, double-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial will enroll 160 adults aged 18 to 75 years who underwent hematoma evacuation within 48 hours after spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage and have a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 5 to 9 on postoperative day 5 while not sedated. Participants will be assigned 1:1 to active taVNS or sham stimulation for 8 hours once daily for 6 weeks. The primary outcome is the proportion of participants who remain in a disorder of consciousness (unresponsive wakefulness syndrome/vegetative state or minimally conscious state) at postoperative day 90, determined using the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised by blinded assessors. Nested mechanistic substudies will investigate how taVNS may affect recovery through multimodal assessment of structural and functional brain networks, cerebral perfusion, electrophysiology, autonomic function, and circulating or cerebrospinal-fluid biomarkers. Depending on clinical stability, site capability, sample availability, and additional consent, assessments may include computed tomography, computed tomography angiography and perfusion, structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging, diffusion imaging, arterial spin labeling, electroencephalography, blood samples, and cerebrospinal fluid obtained during clinically indicated procedures.

Moyamoya disease (MMD) is a chronic occlusive cerebrovascular disease characterized by progressive stenosis or occlusion at the terminal portion of the internal carotid artery, with formation of an abnormal vascular network at the base of the brain. Moyamoya syndrome (MMS) has the same cerebrovascular imaging and clinical manifestations as moyamoya disease, but it is accompanied by other systemic comorbidities. Moyamoya disease and moyamoya syndrome are collectively referred to as moyamoya-like cerebrovascular disease. They are highly prevalent in East Asia, and China has a large patient population. In 2018, the incidence was 1.6 per 100,000 person-years, and the disease is a major cause of stroke in children, adolescents, and young adults \[1\]. This group of diseases often causes severe complications such as stroke and cognitive impairment, leading to poor prognosis and reduced ability to live independently \[2\]. Among patients who do not receive effective treatment, the risk of severe neurological deficit or death is as high as 75%, and approximately 60% of patients with moyamoya disease develop cognitive impairment \[3\]. Therefore, moyamoya disease (moyamoya syndrome) is a major health problem that seriously affects the health of the Chinese population. At present, several urgent problems remain in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of moyamoya disease (moyamoya syndrome). First, the epidemiological characteristics and disease susceptibility of this condition in the Chinese population are not yet fully clear. Second, reliable clinical assessment tools and standardized risk prediction models for moyamoya disease are lacking, and there is still no clear basis for identifying which patients need timely intervention. Third, a systematic precision treatment pathway for moyamoya disease has not yet been established, and high-quality evidence is still lacking regarding the role of pharmacological and physical therapy in delaying disease progression. Therefore, systematic research to clarify the efficacy of different treatment approaches in moyamoya disease is of great significance for promoting the establishment of an integrated diagnostic and therapeutic system for this disease. \[Add a paragraph introducing ischemic conditioning and its role in stroke and MMD.\] Systematic treatment is an important means to improve the prognosis of moyamoya disease. Current major treatment options include revascularization surgery and pharmacological therapy. Previous studies have shown that revascularization surgery can improve cerebral blood flow and reduce the risk of stroke; however, for asymptomatic or early-stage patients, surgery is not the only option \[4\]. In terms of pharmacological therapy, nonsurgical treatments such as antiplatelet therapy and intensive lipid-lowering therapy may delay disease progression, but high-quality clinical evidence remains lacking. In addition, emerging physical therapies such as ischemic conditioning have been shown to improve the tolerance of brain tissue to ischemia and have demonstrated potential therapeutic value in patients with stroke \[5\]. However, the safety and efficacy of these treatment approaches in patients with moyamoya disease require further study and validation. Therefore, this study proposes to conduct a multicenter, prospective randomized controlled clinical trial to systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of aspirin therapy and ischemic conditioning therapy in delaying the progression of moyamoya disease, and to provide evidence-based support for nonsurgical treatment strategies for patients with moyamoya disease. \[The following content was moved from the study rationale section and should be integrated with the research background.\] Even when patients with moyamoya disease (moyamoya syndrome) have not yet developed definite symptoms of cerebral infarction, their cerebral hemodynamics may already be in a compensated or critical state. They are often prone to nonspecific symptoms such as headache and dizziness, subjective cognitive decline, and TIA attacks, and they have a potential risk of progression to symptomatic stroke. Microembolus formation and vascular endothelial dysfunction may further reduce flow reserve and aggravate hypoperfusion, thereby leading to adverse events. For such mildly affected patients, early intervention has important clinical value for delaying disease progression and preventing cerebrovascular events. Aspirin irreversibly inhibits cyclooxygenase-1 and blocks thromboxane A2 production, thereby inhibiting platelet aggregation. In the pathological process of moyamoya disease (moyamoya syndrome), microcirculatory changes and vascular intimal injury may activate platelets and promote microthrombus formation, which may aggravate ischemia-induced stroke. Therefore, aspirin may reduce the risk of ischemic events by inhibiting platelet aggregation. Ischemic conditioning is a noninvasive physical therapy that activates systemic endogenous protect

This study aims to evaluate the safety and preliminary efficacy of combined auditory and visual 40-Hz stimulation in participants with biomarker-confirmed Alzheimer's disease spectrum disorders. A total of 60 participants with mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease or mild Alzheimer's disease dementia will be randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive either active multisensory 40-Hz stimulation or sham stimulation. The intervention will be administered for 60 minutes once daily for 4 consecutive weeks. Clinical assessments, electroencephalography, multimodal magnetic resonance imaging, and blood biomarkers will be evaluated before and after the intervention. Additional clinical, electroencephalographic, and blood biomarker assessments will be performed at 3 and 6 months after the intervention.

Bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (IC/BPS) brings long-term pelvic pain, frequent urination and poor sleep quality, which severely lowers patients' daily life quality. Educational and behavioral management program (EBMP) is a mainstream non-drug treatment for IC/BPS, yet a considerable proportion of patients fail to achieve satisfying symptom relief via EBMP alone. This multicenter randomized controlled trial aims to compare the efficacy and safety of pregabalin combined with EBMP versus EBMP monotherapy in adult IC/BPS patients. A total of 140 eligible adult participants fulfilling AUA and ESSIC diagnostic criteria for IC/BPS will be randomized at a 1:1 ratio into two groups. The control group receives standalone EBMP intervention, while the intervention group obtains EBMP plus pregabalin with flexible dosage titration. Pregabalin starts at 150 mg per day, and doses can be gradually adjusted up to a maximum daily limit of 600 mg according to patients' tolerance and symptom improvement during the 12-week intervention period. All enrolled participants will complete standardized symptom questionnaires, pain scoring and voiding diary assessments at predefined follow-up time points. The primary outcome is treatment response measured by Global Response Assessment (GRA) after 12 weeks of intervention. Secondary evaluations cover VAS pain scores, PUF, ICSI, ICPI scales, bladder functional parameters, quality of life, sleep status and depressive symptoms. Researchers will track all adverse events throughout follow-up to judge the safety of combined treatment. Findings from this trial can offer optimized treatment options for adults diagnosed with IC/BPS.

Previous studies have shown that the anterior cingulate cortex is involved in the regulation of pain and its associated negative emotions, that pyramidal neurons are highly excitable in chronic neuropathic pain conditions, and that silencing of pyramidal neurons can eliminate pain. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of intracranial injection of GA (containing the hM4Di gene) in the anterior cingulate cortex in combination with oral clozapine for the treatment of refractory neuropathic pain.

Chronic non-specific low back pain is the leading cause of productivity loss and disability worldwide, constituting a major public health challenge. This study aims to systematically evaluate and compare the role of the antidepressant drug Venlafaxine in chronic non-specific low back pain, which is of critical importance for optimising clinical practice and developing precise, individualised treatment regimens.

Chronic non-specific low back pain is the leading cause of productivity loss and disability worldwide, constituting a major public health challenge. This study aims to systematically evaluate and compare the role of the antidepressant drug toludesvenlafaxine in chronic non-specific low back pain, which is of critical importance for optimising clinical practice and developing precise, individualised treatment regimens.

To compare the dosage requirement of rimazolen under intravenous anesthesia between patients with insomnia and those with normal sleep pattern.

To compare the dosage requirement of etomidate under intravenous anesthesia between patients with insomnia and those with normal sleep pattern.

To compare the dosage requirement of ciprofol under intravenous anesthesia between patients with insomnia and those with normal sleep pattern.

This is an adaptive platform-basket trial that aims to evaluate the safety and efficacy of multiple novel agents and combination therapies in patients with NF2-related schwannomatosis (NF2-SWN). The study employs a basket design to assess treatment responses across four tumor types commonly associated with NF2-SWN: vestibular schwannomas, non-vestibular schwannomas, meningiomas, and ependymomas. A shared natural history observational cohort, receiving routine clinical follow-up without investigational treatment, serves as a common control for all substudies. The adaptive platform enables the dynamic addition or closure of substudies based on interim analyses, thereby optimizing trial efficiency. Eligible patients who meet the master protocol criteria and satisfy substudy-specific safety requirements will be assigned to receive the corresponding intervention. Currently open substudies include: * Substudy A: Selumetinib * Substudy B: Luvometinib plus Serplulimab

The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the MEK1/2 inhibitor selumetinib in treating patients with neurofibromatosis type 2-related schwannomatosis (NF2-SWN), including both adults and children with inoperable or progressive tumors.

This is an investigator-initiated, exploratory, multicenter, open-label, single-arm clinical trial and a substudy of the Platform Research for Innovative Medicines in NF2-SWN (PRIME-NF2). The study aims to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and preliminary efficacy of luvometinib in combination with serplulimab in patients with NF2-related schwannomatosis (NF2-SWN) with progressive tumors.

Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) is less invasive compared to traditional thoracotomy. It is reported that the incidence of acute pain following VATS exceeds 80%. Inadequate postoperative analgesia may trigger a series of adverse physiological stress responses, increase the occurrence of postoperative complications, and affect the rehabilitation process.If acute pain is not managed promptly and sufficiently, nearly one-quarter of patients may develop chronic pain, impacting normal life and sleep quality after discharge. Local infiltration anesthesia at the incision site is one of the simplest, safest, and most effective methods for preventing postoperative incision pain. Liposomal bupivacaine(LB) is a novel, long-acting, sustained-release amide-type local anesthetic, providing localized analgesic effects for up to 72 hours. Some researchers have reported the analgesic effects of LB VS traditional local anesthetics infiltration, but the current research results are highly heterogeneous. More prospective studies are needed to evaluate whether LB infiltration is superior to the traditional local anesthetics for the management of postoperative pain. The investigators designed this study to compare the analgesic effect of using LB plus bupivacaine for local infiltration with bupivacaine along for patients after VATS.

The aim of DREAM-PRIDE is to evaluate whether implantation of drug-eluting stent (DES) combined with aggressive medical treatment is more efficacious in prevention of 1-year stroke recurrence than standard medical treatment alone for symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic disease.

This prospective, randomized controlled trial aims to investigate the perioperative use of lemborexant, an orexin receptor antagonist, for reducing postoperative delirium (POD) in elderly patients undergoing general anesthesia.

It is planned to include 10000 patients. In the China HeadAche DIsorders RegiStry CHAIRS）, patients aged over 12 years with primary headache and medication-overuse headache(MOH) were collected. The biomarkers, imaging features, cognition, genetic characteristics, ocial and demographic data, medical data, therapeutics used, and outcome of headache-related diseases were studied, and long-term follow-up was planned.

Background: Although emergency surgery may reduce mortality in patients with severe spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (SSICH), the effectiveness and safety of surgical treatment among SSICH patients receiving long-term oral antiplatelet therapy (LOAPT) remain unclear. The CRISIH registry was originally designed to evaluate the effect and safety of emergency surgery in SSICH patients receiving LOAPT and has subsequently continued as an ongoing multicenter registry of spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage. Methods: The CRISIH registry is an ongoing prospective, multicenter cohort registry conducted across participating clinical centers in China. The registry was initiated in November 2019 and is designed as a 10-year registry with continued recruitment and follow-up. Data from the initial five-year enrollment period are used for interim and secondary analyses, while recruitment and follow-up continue during the subsequent registry period. Clinical, radiological, surgical, laboratory, and follow-up information are collected using standardized case report forms. For the originally registered primary outcome, patients are followed until death or 6 months after the occurrence of primary hemorrhage; selected follow-up assessments and secondary analyses may extend beyond this period according to the registry protocol. Study Design: The CRISIH registry was designed as a prospective, multicenter cohort registry of patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage. One originally registered comparative focus evaluates SSICH patients receiving LOAPT, comparing total mortality and survival outcomes between patients receiving emergency surgical treatment and those receiving conservative treatment. The safety of surgery is assessed by comparing postoperative hemorrhagic complications among operated patients with and without LOAPT. Based on the observed clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients receiving LOAPT, the registry also evaluates ischemic events after discontinuation of LOAPT and explores coagulation function assessment strategies in operated patients receiving LOAPT. Objective: The CRISIH registry aims to prospectively evaluate clinical outcomes and management strategies in patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage. An originally registered focus of the registry is to assess the effectiveness and safety of emergency surgery among SSICH patients receiving LOAPT, thereby generating evidence to support future clinical management. Secondary Analysis Update: The present update describes an interim secondary analysis of the ongoing CRISIH registry based on patients enrolled during the initial five-year period from November 2019 to December 2024. This analysis focuses on postoperative disorders of consciousness after surgery for spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage, with consciousness status assessed at 30, 90, 180, and 365 days after surgery using the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised. This interim secondary analysis does not alter the ongoing registry design, recruitment status, or originally registered primary outcome.

This study aims to compare two treatment plans for adults with bladder pain syndrome (also called interstitial cystitis), a disease that causes long-lasting bladder pain, frequent urination and urgent need to pee. All participants will receive standardized patient education and behavioral training to relieve urinary discomfort. Half of the participants will only get this behavioral intervention, while the other half will take oral venlafaxine in addition to the same behavioral training for 12 weeks. We will check patients' pain levels, urination frequency, sleep quality, mood and daily life ability at 1, 2, 6 and 12 weeks of treatment. The main goal is to see whether adding venlafaxine can better ease bladder pain and urinary symptoms without obvious side effects. This research will provide safer and more effective treatment suggestions for patients with bladder pain syndrome.

This is a multicenter, single-arm, continuous, prospective, interventional registry study designed to systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of low-dose blinatumomab in patients with antibody-mediated refractory autoimmune encephalitis (AE) and autoimmune cerebellitis. Eligible participants will be patients with a confirmed diagnosis of refractory AE or autoimmune cerebellitis who have provided written informed consent. All enrolled patients will receive blinatumomab treatment according to a unified protocol, consisting of two cycles: Cycle 1 (Week 1): Continuous intravenous infusion at 9 µg/day for 5 consecutive days (total dose: 45 µg). Cycle 2 (Week 3): Continuous intravenous infusion at 9 µg/day for 5 consecutive days (total dose: 45 µg). If there is no improvement in the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score at Week 3 and the proportion of peripheral blood B cells (CD3-/CD19+) remains \>1%, the dose may be optimized to 15 µg/m²/day (maximum 28 µg/day). During the study, all patients will undergo regular follow-up visits to collect data on clinical symptoms, functional scores, immunological biomarkers, and adverse events, to comprehensively assess the efficacy and safety of the treatment. This study uses a non-randomized, open-label design with no blinding or control group.

The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy and safety of minocycline in improving functional outcome among patients with acute ischaemic stroke receiving intravenous thrombolysis.