Active clinical trials for "Muscular Dystrophies"

The purpose of this research study is to determine the potential of magnetic resonance imaging, spectroscopy, and whole body imaging to monitor disease progression and to serve as an objective outcome measure for clinical trials in Muscular Dystrophy (MD). The investigators will compare the muscles of ambulatory or non-ambulatory boys/men with DMD with muscles of healthy individuals of the same age and monitor disease progression in those with DMD over a 5-10 year period. The amount of muscle damage and fat that the investigators measure will also be related to performance in daily activities, such as walking and the loss of muscle strength. In a small group of subjects the investigators will also assess the effect of corticosteroid drugs on the muscle measurements. Additionally, the investigators will map the progression of Becker MD following adults with this rare disease. The primary objective is to conduct a multi-centered study to validate the potential of non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance spectroscopy to monitor disease progression and to serve as a noninvasive surrogate outcome measure for clinical trials in DMD and BMD. The secondary objective is to characterize the progressive involvement of the lower extremity, upper extremity, trunk/respiratory muscles in boys/men with DMD and BMD guiding clinical trials.

In the Congenital Myopathy Research Program at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, the researchers are studying the congenital myopathies (neuromuscular diseases present from birth), including central core disease, centronuclear/myotubular myopathy, congenital fiber type disproportion, multiminicore disease, nemaline myopathy, rigid spine muscular dystrophy, SELENON (SEPN1), RYR1 myopathy, ADSS1 (ADSSL) Myopathy and undefined congenital myopathies. The primary goal of the research is to better understand the genes and proteins (gene products) involved in muscle functioning and disease. The researchers hope that our studies will allow for improved diagnosis and treatment of individuals with congenital myopathies in the future. For more information, visit the Laboratory Website at www.childrenshospital.org/research/beggs

This study aims to evaluate the safety of a wireless implantable neurodevice microsystem in tetraplegic patients, as well as the efficacy of the electrodes for long-term recording of neural activities and the successful control of an external device.

Early Check provides voluntary screening of newborns for a selected panel of conditions. The study has three main objectives: 1) develop and implement an approach to identify affected infants, 2) address the impact on infants and families who screen positive, and 3) evaluate the Early Check program. The Early Check screening will lead to earlier identification of newborns with rare health conditions in addition to providing important data on the implementation of this model program. Early diagnosis may result in health and development benefits for the newborns. Infants who have newborn screening in North Carolina will be eligible to participate, equating to over 120,000 eligible infants a year. Over 95% of participants are expected to screen negative. Newborns who screen positive and their parents are invited to additional research activities and services. Parents can enroll eligible newborns on the Early Check electronic Research Portal. Screening tests are conducted on residual blood from existing newborn screening dried blood spots. Confirmatory testing is provided free-of-charge for infants who screen positive, and carrier testing is provided to mothers of infants with fragile X. Affected newborns have a physical and developmental evaluation. Their parents have genetic counseling and are invited to participate in surveys and interviews. Ongoing evaluation of the program includes additional parent interviews.

The purpose of this research use only (RUO) study is to detect genomic structural variants (SVs) in human DNA by Optical Genome Mapping (OGM) using the Bionano Genomics Saphyr system. SVs are a type of genetic alternation that includes deletions, duplications, and both balanced and unbalanced rearrangements (ex: inversions or translocations), as well as specific repeat expansions and contractions. The results of OGM analysis will be compared to prior clinical genetic test results to determine how OGM compares to current standard of care (SOC) clinical test methods such as chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA), karyotyping, Southern blot analysis, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and/or next generation sequencing (NGS), etc.

Baseline Study on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) in view to collect data on the natural disease course in a cohort in young male subjects aged from 5 to 9 Years over a period of 6 to 36 months using disease appropriate evaluations.

The combination of short quantitatively assessing muscular function and balance in combination with short clinical scores, can be a new valid approach to evaluate the patient risk of fall and help to create a quick checkup test to prescribe an appropriate assistive device. The primary goal of this project is to provide a short battery of clinical assessments used to determine risk of falling for patients with neuromuscular diseases (NMD) based on correlation between clinical assessments between two groups of NMD patients and scales used to assess risk of falling for patients.

The primary objective of the study is to perform 2-year follow up with motor parameters evolution using instrumental assessments in patients with limb girdle muscular dystrophie, and to identify which motor parameters are sensitive to change. The secondary objectives of the study are: to describe the changes of the parameters obtained from instrumental evaluations in comparison with the changes obtained from clinical assessments. to characterize the muscular impairments, the biomechanical gait disorders, the standing postural control disorders, the biomechanical upper limb disorders in spatial exploration, the limitation of upper limb capacities, the fatigue, the endurance, the patients' participation to their activities and their quality of life, in comparison with a healthy paired population. to highlight the relationships between muscular assessment parameters, biomechanical gait parameters, standing posture control and upper limb spatial exploration. to highlight the relationships between data from instrumental assessments and data from clinical assessments. to highlight the relationships between instrumental assessments data and clinical assessments data on one side, and features of patients (age, sex, duration since diagnosis, type of LGMD, rehabilitation in follow-up, sportive practices...) on the other side.

The objective of this study is to understand the relationship between DMD and BMD brain comorbidities, and the location of the gene mutation which causes the disease.

The objective of this study is to collect data from a large cohort of individuals with DMD and BMD focusing on the neurobehavioural aspects of these conditions and their correlation to the location of the DMD gene mutation.