Brain Changes in Patients With Focal Hand Dystonia

Exclusion Criteria

• •The following subjects will be excluded:
• •A. Subjects younger than 18 and older than 65 years old.
• •B. Subjects with MRI findings consistent with brain tumors, strokes, trauma or AVMs.
• •C. Patients with progressive neurological disorders other than dystonia.
• •D. Subjects with past or present neuropsychiatric illness, head trauma with loss of consciousness, epilepsy, cerebro-vascular disease, migraine, past and present history of alcohol abuse, medical conditions that may alter cerebral structure.
• •E. Subjects with cancer, except for skin cancer.
• •F. Subjects incapable of giving an informed consent
• •G. Subjects who are pregnant or breastfeeding
• •H. Patients who are currently on benzodiazepines, which binds GABA-A receptors and will compete directly with flumazenil for binding; baclofen which binds GABA-B receptors; flunitrazepam, a benzodiazepine receptor agonist; or triazolam, a partial allosteric modulator of GABA A receptors. Patients need to be off of these medications for four weeks prior to entering the study.
• •I. Patients who have had recent (within 3 months) BoTox injections. Botulinum Toxin A (BoTox) injections are commonly used to relieve pain and muscle spasms of dystonic patients.
• •Participation of Children
• •Patients or healthy subjects younger than 18 years of age will be excluded from the study due to the following reasons:
• •(i) Absorbed radiation dose per mCi is relatively higher, and pharmacodynamic effects are greater in children compared to adults. (ii) No direct benefit for individual patients is anticipated from this study. The study is of "greater than minimal risk", and thus does not meet the criterion of 45 CFR 46 Subpart D (the "prospect of direct benefit") governing participation of children in research.