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Systemic atrophies primarily affecting the central nervous system
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Motor neuron disease (MND) is the term used to describe are a group of incurable neurodegenerative diseases. These diseases are characterised by progressive motor neuron degeneration, which often occurs very rapidly. People living with MND experience progressive muscle weakness, wasting and reduced mobility, speech, swallowing and respiratory capabilities; with a life expectancy of 2-3 years following symptom onset.
The project aims to improve measuring and tracking muscle health in MND using ultrasound imaging. This project is necessary because there are currently no easy ways to detect early muscle changes in MND before major loss of function. An early sign of MND is spontaneous muscle twitches, called fasciculations, which occur before the muscle weakens. Recent work shows that, fasciculations can show the muscles affected by MND, and the number of fasciculations per minute changes as MND progresses. This means it could be useful to measure features of fasciculation to track changes in muscle health.
We have already developed software that can spot fasciculations in ultrasound videos and have seen that fasciculations look different in healthy and MND affected muscles. This is promising, but further work is needed to develop a complete tool that can be clinically useful for earlier MND diagnosis and monitoring treatment.
Therefore, project objectives are:
1. Collect new ultrasound videos of arm and leg muscles from 25 people with MND, scanned 3 times within a six-month period, and 24 healthy controls. This will help track real muscle changes, distinguishable from normal variations in healthy muscles.
2. Use the new videos to fully test the best mathematical approaches from Step 1, to finetune these tools so they accurately identify MND affected muscles from ultrasound.
By providing an easy and pain-free way to monitor muscle we hope to enable earlier diagnosis of MND. This would mean that, once more treatments are available, they can be started before the disease causes too much damage. Monitoring muscle more closely will also make it easier to predict when someone may need changes to the care they receive, and care could be more personalised than is currently possible. Finally, being able to monitor muscle health more closely will also mean fewer people need to take part in clinical trials testing new treatments, because the effects of the treatment would be spotted more easily. This will mean faster and cheaper trials so more potential treatments could be tested in less time, increasing the rate that effective treatments can be found.
Start dates may differ between countries and research sites. The research team are responsible for keeping the information up-to-date.
The recruitment start and end dates are as follows:
Observational type: Cohort study;
You can take part if:
You may not be able to take part if:
People under the age of 18 years For participants living with MND: People for whom MND diagnosis is uncertain (based on El escorial criteria). People diagnosed neuropathic or myopathic conditions, of which fasciculation are a sign Incapable of providing consent or designating third party (independent of the research team) to sign on their behalf if they are unable to write Insufficient knowledge of the English language
Below are the locations for where you can take part in the trial. Please note that not all sites may be open.
The study is sponsored by Manchester Metropolitan University and funded by Medical Research Council (MRC) .
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Read full details
for Trial ID: CPMS 70556
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