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Surface EMG and Ultrasound in MND

NCT05314348 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 25

Last updated 2022-04-06

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Patients with motor neurone disease typically experience relentless motor decline and die within three years of symptom onset from respiratory muscle weakness. There are currently no effective therapies and the discovery of novel therapies is hampered by the lack of a sensitive disease biomarker. Consequently, there is a huge drive to discover novel biomarkers, which can reliably track disease progression over time. These can then be incorporated into clinical drug trials to expedite effective drug discovery.

Muscle fasciculations represent the hyperexcitability of diseased motor neurons and are almost universally present from the early stages of MND. We predict that the site, frequency and shape of fasciculations might provide a sensitive measure of disease progression in an individual.

We have been conducting a 12-month longitudinal study of 25 patients, performing high-density surface EMG every two months. We have validated an automated technique to process these large data sets. Ultrasound is widely used in clinical medicine to assess anatomical structure in a safe and non-invasive way. Dr Emma Hodson-Tole (Manchester Metropolitan University) and her group have been applying this to the analysis of fasciculations in healthy individuals and patients with MND.

This collaborative project will explore combining these two techniques simultaneously in patients with motor neuron disease and control subjects. The goal is to explore the nature of electro-mechanical coupling related to fasciculations and to determine whether any of these properties are pathophysiological. This would complement other studies from our two groups, investigating the natural history and potential utility of fasciculations as a biomarker of motor neuron health in MND.

Conditions

  • Motor Neuron Disease

Interventions

DEVICE

High-density surface EMG

High-density surface EMG for fasciculation detection

DEVICE

Ultrasound

Ultrasound for fasciculation detection

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Manchester Metropolitan University

    collaborator OTHER

  • King's College Hospital NHS Trust

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
80 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2019-06-11
Primary Completion
2019-12-01
Completion
2019-12-01

Countries

  • United Kingdom

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT05314348 on ClinicalTrials.gov