Active clinical trials for "Muscular Diseases"

The purpose of this 3-year, multi-site, non-randomized, prospective, observational study is to characterize the natural history of Pearson Syndrome. The Syndrome is a rare mitochondrial disorder due to a large-scale mtDNA deletion. Children typically present in their 1st two years of life (most in infancy) with anemia and/or pancreatitis. Most individuals with Pearson Syndrome die in childhood. Those who survive evolve to Kearns-Sayre Syndrome/Chronic Progressive External Ophthalmoplegia (KSS/CPEO) although accurate survival estimates are not yet known.

This study is a longitudinal study evaluating the severity and progression of respiratory muscle function in patients with X-Linked Myotubular Myopathy (XLMTM) aged 0-14.

This retrospective medical chart review (RECENSUS) of approximately 100 XLMTM patients (with a goal to obtain 50 deceased and 20 living records) will provide further knowledge about the clinical manifestations and recorded medical management of XLMTM and potentially inform the design of future therapeutic intervention studies.

Intensive care unit (ICU) admission is associated with muscle weakness and ICU survivors report persevering limitation of physical capacity for years after discharge. Limited information is available about the underlying biomechanical properties responsible for this muscle function impairment.

Patients will be randomly assigned to two separate groups. Both patient groups will be evaluated using the WHOQOL-BREF questionaire. Evaluations will be carried out just before the study begins and at intervals of six months during a period of one year for a total of three evaluations. Group one will be made up of patients who will begin homeopathy or acupuncture or anthroposophic medicine treatment and patients from group two will start homeopathy or acupuncture or anthroposophic medicine six months after the beginning of the study. Each one of these three research branches will be done independently (Homeopathy versus control; Acupuncture versus control; Anthroposophic Medicine versus control). Conventional medical treatment will be available for all patients in both groups. A data sheet will be filled out on each patient with data as to age, education level, marital status and the patient's own perception of their health status. During the interviews the interviewer will have no influence whatsoever over the respondents' answers. Integrative/complementary or traditional medicine doctors do not participate in the research and will not be informed about which patients are participating in this project, and as such the research will be blinded for these doctors. Minitab software, version 16, was used for sample calculation through the module Power and Sample Size. Sample calculation option for paired t-tests before and after intervention demonstrated the need to randomize 906 patients: 450 patients for homeopathy branch (225 patients in the homeopathy group and 225 patients in the control group), 228 patients for acupuncture branch (114 patients in the acupuncture group and 114 patients in the control group), and 228 patients for anthroposophic medicine branch (114 patients in the anthroposophic medicine group and 114 patients in the control group).

Many myopathies are inherited in a recessive manner, but in some of these recessively inherited disorders, clinical manifestations may potentially manifest in carriers of just a single mutation. The aim of the study is to describe the clinical characteristics of single mutation carriers of recessive myopathy, through measuring serum creatine kinase, muscle strength, muscle degeneration (by MRI) and heart affection. The investigators will do this by blood sampling, Biodex 4 Isokinetic Dynamometer, MRI analysis, ECG, Holter monitoring, and echocardiography. The aim is further to describe whether these characteristics are found primarily with specific mutations.

The aim of this study is to quantify muscle relaxation properties of the finger flexor muscles in patients with different myopathies. The inhibiting effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on the cortical motor hand area are used to induce relaxation, which in turn will be monitored with handgrip dynamometry and EMG. The investigators will evaluate if this technique can be implemented as a diagnostic tool in clinical practice. Muscle relaxation is an often overlooked property of the muscle as compared to muscle strength or activation. Muscle relaxation is affected in different myopathies, such as myotonic dystrophy, non-dystrophic myotonias, and Brody myopathy. Therefore, a diagnostic tool to quantify muscle relaxation is of clinical and scientific importance. In this study, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is used, in combination with a dynamometer to quantify muscle relaxation properties. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive technique that is commonly used to stimulate the brain. In practice, a circular coil is held directly above the scalp, upon which a strong current pulse induces a magnetic field that stimulates the underlying superficial brain areas. This stimulation can have both activating and inhibiting effects. When the motor cortex (i.e. the area of the brain that controls muscle contractions) is strongly stimulated with TMS during a voluntary muscle contraction, both excitatory and inhibitory effects can be observed in the muscle the targeted cortical area controls. The inhibitory effect entails a transient interruption of neural drive to the muscle. This interruption, called the "silent period", lasts for less than half a second and results in the relaxation of the muscle. Muscle activity and control quickly return to normal after the silent period. The elegance and main advantage of TMS-induced muscle relaxation lies in the fact that it excludes all voluntary influences on the relaxation process. Furthermore, the TMS pulse causes all muscle fibres involved in the contraction just prior to the onset of the silent period to relax simultaneously. This allows us to study muscle relaxation as only a property of the muscle, i.e. without voluntary influences. In this study, the investigators will measure muscle relaxation in several myopathies (McArdle disease, Nemaline myopathy type 6 and myotonic dystrophy type 2) and compare this to healthy controls and to controls with no myopathy but with similar complaints (myalgia, stiffness, cramps). The data from these two control groups has been gathered previously in a different study. The investigators will also compare this to patients suffering from Brody disease who were previously measured in a different study. Muscle relaxation will be evaluated in fresh and fatigued finger flexor muscles. The main outcome of this study is the peak relaxation rate normalized to the peak force preceding relaxation. The final outlook of this research is to evaluate whether muscle relaxation studied with TMS, can be used for different myopathies as a diagnostic tool, to monitor disease progression, and to study the effects of different interventions (e.g. medication, exercise).

The aim of our study was to assess the performance of compression-strain US elastography in patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies over time and to study these findings with clinical and functional parameters as well as biochemical and electromyographic tests.

To observe not only the distribution of single nucleotide polymorphism in genes related with pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetics alteration of statins but also to analyze the correlation between these SNPs and the incidence of statins-induced myopathy.

This study is a prospective observational study. We aim to investigate the safety and efficacy of inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine between immune-related myopathy (myasthenia gravis and inflammatory myopathy) patients and health controls. The main study factors include adverse events following immunization (AEFI), serum specific antibody (Acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antibody, Anti-MuSK (muscle-specific kinase) antibody, myositis antibody) and virus neutralizing antibody titers.