Active clinical trials for "Muscular Dystrophies"

The purpose of this study is to obtain preliminary device safety information and demonstrate proof of principle (feasibility) of the ability of people with tetraplegia to control a computer cursor and other assistive devices with their thoughts.

The purpose of this study is to understand the safety and effects of an experimental gene therapy called fordadistrogene movaparvovec. We are seeking participants from previous Pfizer interventional studies. We will follow participants' experience in this study for 10 years after the end of their previous study. Participants will have 1 annual onsite visit and a few annual remote visits. The exact number of remote visits will be decided by their study doctor.

The most common muscular dystrophy among pediatric neuromuscular diseases is Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). There is no consensus on a standardized physiotherapy and rehabilitation program or exercise prescription in DMD. Motor imagery (MI) is defined as visualizing motor activities in one's mind without performing any movement. There are studies examining the effectiveness of motor imagery in stroke, cerebral palsy, Parkinson's, peripheral facial paralysis, and phantom pain. This study is aimed to examine the effect of motor imagery on gait and balance functions in children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Boys residing in Istanbul Turkey, between the ages of 5 and 12, with a diagnosis of DMD who have not lost their ability to ambulate independently will be included in the study. The included individuals will be divided into two groups due to randomization: Group A (Control Group Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Program) and Group B (Additional Motor Imagery Training to Intervention Group Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Program). While the physiotherapy and rehabilitation program is applied to the participants in Group A with 40-minute sessions on 2 non-consecutive days of the week for 8 weeks, the participants in Group B will receive an additional 25-30-minute motor imagery program to the physiotherapy and rehabilitation program. Participants were tested with Kinovea Gait Analysis, Timed Up and Go Test, 2 Minute Walking Test, Motor Function Rating Scale for Neuromuscular Diseases, timed performance tests, Pediatric Berg Balance Scale, Pediatric Fear of Fall Questionnaire (Ped-FOF) before and after the program. will be evaluated later. IBM SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) statistical program version 22.0 will be used for statistical analysis. The conformity of the variables to the normal distribution will be determined by the "Shapiro-Wilk Test". If the variables show normal distribution, the variation within the group will be analyzed with the "Paired Sample T Test", if not, the "Wilcoxon Test" will be analyzed. In the comparison between groups, if the variables show normal distribution, it will be done with the "Independent T Test" in independent groups and the "Mann Whitney U Test" if they do not show normal distribution. Categorical data distributions will be evaluated with the "Chi-square test". In all analyses, p<0.05 will be considered statistically significant.

The purpose of this study is to obtain preliminary device safety information and demonstrate proof of principle (feasibility) of the ability of people with tetraplegia to control a computer cursor and other assistive devices with their thoughts.

Muscular dystrophy (MD) is a group of muscle diseases that results in increasing weakening and breakdown of skeletal muscles over time. The disorders differ in which muscles are primarily affected, the degree of weakness, how fast they worsen, and when symptoms begin. Many people will eventually become unable to walk. Some types are also associated with problems in other organs. The muscular dystrophy group contains thirty different genetic disorders that are usually classified into nine main categories or types. The signs and symptoms consistent with muscular dystrophy are: progressive muscular wasting, poor balance, scoliosis (curvature of the spine and the back), progressive inability to walk, waddling gait, Calf deformation, Limited range of movement, respiratory difficulty, cardiomyopathy and muscle spasms This study aimed to assess the efficacy of Kinesiology Taping on head and trunk control in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is one of the most common adult muscular dystrophy with an estimated prevalence range of 2-7 per 100,000. The disease is characterized by slowly progressive, asymmetric muscle weakness that starts with the face and scapular muscles. It causes significant lifetime morbidity, with up to 20% of patients eventually requiring full-time wheelchair use. However, there is a large degree of clinical variability in both disease progression and severity. This makes predicting an individual's disease course difficult and has made clinical trial design and the development of new therapeutic strategies challenging. The disease is caused by the aberrant expression of a normally silenced gene, Double homeobox 4 (DUX4), which causes disease by a toxic gain-of-function. The emergence of the pathophysiologic model provided several possible therapeutic approaches to treat FSHD. However, as drugs move from preclinical testing into human trials, it is essential to validate clinical trial tools and methodologies to facilitate drug development from early phase studies through registration trials. Natural history studies are conducted to develop and validate new clinical outcome measures (COMs). A large international multicenter study is currently ongoing in order to validate COMs in ambulant FSHD patients (ReSolve, NCT03458832). Additionally, Nice University Hospital is conducting an ancillary study (CTRN FSHD France, NCT04038138) to evaluate muscle MRI, an additional emerging biomarker, to follow disease progression in the same patient population. Nevertheless, these studies are focused on the development of COMs collected at the hospital. In this setting, several factors that may interfere with disease progression or patient quality of life are underestimated (daily exercise, daily pain or fatigue, the psychological impact of the disease, and falls…). Consequently, and given the context of the current pandemic, the interest of pharmaceutical companies, stakeholders, clinicians, and researchers in data collected in a cohort of FSHD patients at home is rapidly increasing. Consequently, a new battery of COMs adapted for the remote evaluation needs to be developed and/or validated. There are clear benefits to remote assessments. The ability to observe an individual perform functional mobility tasks and self-care in their natural environment is meaningful and invaluable. The set-up of a reliable remote assessment will allow for ensuring drug home delivery, maintaining patients on trials, and collecting and analysing additional data to improve patient stratification in clinical trials and develop new approaches to assess the short-term and long-term efficacy of a given therapy. Remote assessment can also be the key to developing more efficient real-life studies, empowering patients and caregivers in the management of this disease, and more efficiently monitoring drug side effects or the socio-economic burden of the disease. The overall aim of the PROGRESS FSHD study is to experiment the feasibility of the remote evaluation in patients with FSHD, through the use of a patient-oriented mobile application (myFSHD app). The content of the application has been determined after extensive discussions with patients and patients' associations that have identified their unmet needs and based on preliminary results of the CTRN FSHD France project. The video-recorded exercises have been designed specifically to stress a particular body region. The myFSHD mobile application will be used by 70 FSHD1 patient during 12 months, at home and at the hospital, to administer patient-reported questionnaires on fatigue, pain, physical activity, sleep, quality of life, and socio-economic burden of the disease, as well as video of validated scores and scales. The collected data will help to: Evaluate patients' adherence to the program Evaluate the technical feasibility of remote evaluation Assess the reliability of remote evaluation Assess the robustness of new COMs compared to commonly used COMs Evaluate the quality of life and socio-economic burden of the disease Overall, this study will provide digital tools adapted to monitor disease evolution remotely in FSHD patients. The patient-generated measures collected through connected digital tools (patient full-body motion videos collected through the myFSHD app) can be used to explain, influence, and/or predict disease-related outcomes

Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is one of the most common adult muscular dystrophy with an estimated prevalence range of 2-7 per 100,000. The disease is characterized by slowly progressive, asymmetric muscle weakness that starts with the face and scapular muscles. It causes significant lifetime morbidity, with up to 20% of patients eventually requiring full-time wheelchair use. However, there is a large degree of clinical variability in both disease progression and severity. This makes predicting an individual's disease course difficult and has made clinical trial design challenging. The disease is caused by the aberrant expression of a normally silenced gene, DUX4, which causes disease by a toxic gain-of-function. The establishment of a unifying model for the cause of FSHD made it possible to develop disease-specific targeted treatments. Pharmaceutical companies are actively investigating therapeutic approaches in order to knockdown or silence DUX4, including the use of antisense RNA oligonucleotides which is already investigated for spinal muscular atrophy, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and myotonic dystrophy. The drug development pipeline for FSHD over the next 5 years looks promising but meetings with industry, advocacy groups, and FSHD scientific experts have identified several gaps that need to be addressed to accelerate efficient drug development. As drugs move from preclinical testing into human trials, it is essential to validate clinical trial tools and methodologies to facilitate drug development. There is a strong need for clinical outcome measures (COMs) including biomarkers, strength outcomes, functional measures and patient reported outcomes to follow disease progression and to evaluate treatment efficacy. A large international multicenter study is currently ongoing in order to validate COMs in ambulant FSHD patients (ReSolve, NCT03458832). Additionally, Nice University Hospital is conducting an ancillary study (CTRL FSHD France, NCT04038138) to evaluate muscle MRI, an additional emerging biomarker, to follow disease progression in the same patient population. To limit patient heterogeneity, only ambulant FSHD patients are included in these 2 ongoing studies. It is therefore important to generate data in severely affected non-ambulant FSHD patients, in order to validate COMs that are adapted to this specific subgroup of patients for future therapeutic trials.

The aims of the current study are as follow: i) Evaluate the safety, usability, and acute efficiency of a programmable ambulation exoskeleton (KeeogoTM Dermoskeleton System, B-Temia Inc., Quebec, Canada) in patients with neuromuscular disorders, ii) Elaborate recommendations regarding usability criteria for safe and efficient use the device in patients with neuromuscular disorders (e.g. type and severity of patient's functional deficits), iii) generate necessary data to foresee a future study involving a home use of the device and assessment of long-term benefits.

The goal of this study is to improve our understanding of speech production, and to translate this into medical devices called intracortical brain-computer interfaces (iBCIs) that will enable people who have lost the ability to speak fluently to communicate via a computer just by trying to speak.

The study team will determine the potential of low dose twice weekly prednisone and whether exercise training can synergize to delay disease progression and improve muscle strength/physical function in boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Current standard of care (daily prednisone) is associated with adverse side effects. Evidence from DMD mouse models suggest that weekly dosing provides same efficacy without side effects. Appropriate exercise may also benefit but this area has not been adequately explored.