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West Nile VirusNCT00069303

Natural History of West Nile Virus Infection

An observational study of West Nile Virus and Encephalitis, run by National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC) at 1 site in United States.

Completed

Finished. The study has ended and is not enrolling. Results may be posted on the official record.

Official record
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Trial summary

This study will examine how West Nile virus (WNV) infection affects the body. Some people infected with WNV have no symptoms. In others, symptoms may vary from fever and headache to a polio-like syndrome with paralysis, to coma and brain changes like those of a stroke. Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 18 years and older
Conditions the study is for
West Nile Virus, Encephalitis, Myelitis
How many people
110 participants
Where
1 siteUnited States
Study dates
16 Sep 2003to 18 Feb 2011
Phase
Observational
Are there results?
None posted in the registry

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 18 years and older
  • All sexes
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Adult, Older adult

Who may be able to join

  • Patients, regardless of race or gender, who consent and meet entry criteria will be enrolled, according to the following criteria. Note: Due to the low case incidence and the lack of validation of the neurologic scoring systems in children, enrollment will be restricted to adults. Two cohorts of patients will be enrolled: Neuroinvasive Disease and West Nile Fever.
  • Greater than or equal to 18 years of age.
  • Documented WNV infection (fever or neuroinvasive disease) that began within four months prior to study entry. Illnesss onset is defined as the first visit to a medical care provider where compatible symptoms (see cohort A or B below) are documented.
  • Local laboratory documentation of WNV infection as defined by positive IgM and/or PCR for WNV in serum or CSF concurrent with or following illness onset.
  • Qualification for Cohort A or B:
  • Neuroinvasive Disease Cohort:
Show all 13Show fewer
  • Fever (temperature greater than 38 C) documented by a health care provider
  • AND: at least one of the following, as documented by a health care provider and in the absence of a more likely clinical explanation:
  • Acutely altered mental status (e.g., disorientation, obtundation, stupor, or coma),
  • Other acute signs of central or peripheral neurologic dysfunction (e.g., paresis or paralysis, nerve palsies, sensory deficits, abnormal reflexes, generalized convulsions, or abnormal movements), or
  • Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pleocytosis (white blood cell count greater than or equal to 4 per mm(3) corrected for red blood cell contamination in CSF) associated with illness clinically compatible with meningitis (e.g., headache or stiff neck)
  • West Nile Fever Cohort:
  • Temperature greater than 38 C as documented by a health care provider.

Who cannot join

  • Unable to obtain valid informed consent.
  • Alternate explanation (as determined by the investigator) for clinical findings (such as structural brain lesion, cerebrovascular accident, or other infectious disease).
  • Evidence of a microbial organism demonstrable on gram or fungal stain of CSF within four months prior to study entry.
  • Investigator's opinion that patient would be unable to adhere to protocol requirements.

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country.

United States1 site
  • National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike

    Bethesda, Maryland, 20892

Other trials in United States

About this study

Official title: Investigation of the Natural History of West Nile Virus Infection in Patients With Recently Acquired West Nile Fever or Neuroinvasive Disease

This study will examine how West Nile virus (WNV) infection affects the body. Some people infected with WNV have no symptoms. In others, symptoms may vary from fever and headache to a polio-like syndrome with paralysis, to coma and brain changes like those of a stroke. Many patients recover with no lasting effects, while a few can have long-lasting neurological damage or may die. This study will collect clinical, laboratory, diagnostic, and radiographic information on people thought to have WNV to better understand the disease.

Patients 18 years of age and older diagnosed with or suspected of having West Nile virus infection may be eligible for this study. Patients will be hospitalized until they are well enough to go home and will undergo the following tests and procedures:

Read more
  • Medical history and physical examination: A thorough history and physical examination will be done on the first day of the study. Then, brief physical exams, including measures of blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate, and temperature, will be done during each day of hospitalization and at every follow-up clinic visit (at 2 weeks and at 1, 3, and 6 months).
  • Blood tests: Blood samples will be collected on the first day of the study, at day 7, at hospital discharge, and at follow-up visits to determine if virus remains in the blood and how it is affecting the body.
  • Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): MRI scans will be done within 72 hours of beginning the study and 1 month after that. This test uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to produce images of the brain that might show abnormalities in the brains of patients with WNV and reveal whether the abnormalities can predict how an individual will recover. For the procedure, the patient lies on a table that is moved into the narrow tunnel-like scanner. During the procedure, a contrast agent that brightens the images is injected through a catheter placed in an arm vein.
  • Neurological examination and neurological function tests: Participants will be tested to see if the West Nile virus has affected their thinking and ability to perform normal daily activities. These tests will be done at the start of the study, on days 3 and 7 (also days 2, 4, 5, and 6 if patients are still in the hospital), at discharge, and at follow-up visits. The tests involve answering a number of questions and performing simple tasks, such as squeezing a hand or lifting a foot.
  • Patients who develop weakness in their arms or legs will also have the following studies:
  1. Electromyography (EMG) to study the electrical activity of the muscle. For this test, needles are placed into a muscle to record the electrical activity at that site.
  2. Nerve conduction studies to measure how well the nerves are working. A small charge of electricity is delivered to a nerve in the affected limb, triggering a muscle to tighten or bend. Small wire electrodes are attached to the skin to measure the time is takes for the nerve to move the electrical current from one part of the limb to another.
  3. Spinal MRI to see if the virus is affecting the spinal cord.

Results of other tests done by the patient's local doctor (such as lumbar puncture, electroencephalogram, x-rays, etc.) will be requested. If a lumbar puncture is done, a small amount of cerebrospinal fluid will be requested for testing for WNV.

Read the detailed description

Investigation of the Natural History of West Nile Virus Infection in Patients with Recently Acquired West Nile Fever or Neuroinvasive Disease is a descriptive natural history study. Since the first reports of WNV disease in North America in 1999, geographic range has expanded, a trend that is expected to continue for the near future. There are few sequentially collected clinical, radiologic and laboratory data from patients with WNV disease. Standardized data collection tools to measure neurologic outcome have not been developed. Prospectively collected data on laboratory and clinical events associated with WNV infection are needed to bridge gaps in current knowledge of this disease and to assist with the design of better treatments. The objectives of this study are to identify and describe the mortality and morbidity, specifically the neurologic and functional outcomes of patients with confirmed WNV disease in order to characterize the clinical course and diverse manifestations, and to assess kinetics of humoral immune responses to WNV infection, correlating these responses with clinical outcomes. Eligible patients fall into two categories: those with neuroinvasive disease caused by WNV infection, and those with WNV fever who received medical attention for their illness. All subjects must have had illness onset within four months prior to enrollment and must have laboratory confirmation of the diagnosis. There will be study visits at Days 1, 14, 30, 90, 180, and 365. Evaluations will include serum and cerebrospinal fluid for determination of WNV IgM/IgG levels and PCR for WNV, urine PCR for WNV, physical examination, serial neurologic examinations, a baseline MRI scan, and four functional and cognitive assessments that have been validated in neurologic illness in adults: the Barthel Index (BI), the Modified Rankin Scale (MRS), the Glasgow Outcome Score (GOS) and the modified Mini-Mental Status Examination (3MS). The subset of study participants who develop motor weakness of an extremity (ies) will have electromyograms, nerve conduction studies and spinal MRI performed. Results from selected clinically indicated tests (done by study participants' physicians, not mandated for the study) will be recorded in the Case Record Forms (CRFs).

Keywords
West Nile Virus, Encephalitis, Virus, Mosquito, Fever, WNV, Myelitis
Medical subject headings
Encephalitis, Myelitis, Virus Diseases, Fever

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted23 Sep 2003 (estimated)
  2. Study start16 Sep 2003
  3. Study completion18 Feb 2011

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Observational
Enrolment
110 participants (estimated)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT00069303
Sponsor's protocol ID
030305
Other IDs
03-CC-0305
Status last verified
18 Feb 2011
First submitted
22 Sep 2003
Last updated
2 Jul 2017
Results posted
No

Publications

  • Mostashari F, Bunning ML, Kitsutani PT, Singer DA, Nash D, Cooper MJ, Katz N, Liljebjelke KA, Biggerstaff BJ, Fine AD, Layton MC, Mullin SM, Johnson AJ, Martin DA, Hayes EB, Campbell GL. Epidemic West Nile encephalitis, New York, 1999: results of a household-based seroepidemiological survey. Lancet. 2001 Jul 28;358(9278):261-4. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(01)05480-0.

    PubMed 11498211
  • Nash D, Mostashari F, Fine A, Miller J, O'Leary D, Murray K, Huang A, Rosenberg A, Greenberg A, Sherman M, Wong S, Layton M; 1999 West Nile Outbreak Response Working Group. The outbreak of West Nile virus infection in the New York City area in 1999. N Engl J Med. 2001 Jun 14;344(24):1807-14. doi: 10.1056/NEJM200106143442401.

    PubMed 11407341
  • Kelley TW, Prayson RA, Isada CM. Spinal cord disease in West Nile virus infection. N Engl J Med. 2003 Feb 6;348(6):564-6; author reply 564-6. doi: 10.1056/NEJM200302063480618. No abstract available.

    PubMed 12571269

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

An observational study of West Nile Virus and Encephalitis, run by National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC) at 1 site in United States.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 13 inclusion and 4 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 2 Jul 2017. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT00069303, which also lists 3 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 2 Jul 2017.

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