View clinical trials related to Muscular Dystrophies.
Filter by:Background: - Some nerve and muscle disorders that start early in life (before age 25), like some forms of muscular dystrophy, can run in families. However, the genetic causes of these disorders are not known. Also, doctors do not fully understand how symptoms of these disorders change over time. Researchers want to learn more about genetic nerve and muscle disorders that start in childhood by studying affected people and their family members, as well as healthy volunteers. Objectives: - To better understand nerve and muscle disorders that start early in life and run in families. Eligibility: - Individuals at least 4 weeks old with childhood-onset muscular and nerve disorders, including those who have a later onset of a disorder that typically has childhood onset. - Affected and unaffected family members of the individuals with muscular and nerve disorders. - Healthy volunteers at least 4 weeks old with no nerve or muscle disorders. Design: - Participants will be screened with a physical exam and medical history. Genetic information will be collected from blood, saliva, cheek swab, or skin samples. Urine samples may also be collected. - Healthy volunteers and unaffected family members will have imaging studies of the muscles. These studies will include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound scans. Results will be compared with those from the affected participants. - All participants with nerve and muscle disorders will have multiple tests, including the following: - Imaging studies of the muscles, including ultrasound and MRI scans. - Imaging studies of the bones, such as x-rays and DEXA scans. - Heart and lung function tests. - Eye exams. - Nerve and muscle electrical activity tests and biopsies. - Video and photo image collection of affected muscles. - Speech, language, and swallowing evaluation. - Lumbar puncture to collect spinal fluid for study. - Tests of movement, attention, thinking, and coordination. - Participants with nerve and muscle disorders will return to the Clinical Center every year. They will repeat the tests and studies at these visits....
Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy (DBMD) is a genetic disorder that develops in boys. It is caused by a mutation in the gene for dystrophin, a protein that is important for maintaining normal muscle structure and function. Loss of dystrophin causes muscle fragility that leads to weakness and loss of walking ability during childhood and teenage years. A specific type of mutation, called a nonsense (premature stop codon) mutation, is the cause of DBMD in approximately 10-15% of boys with the disease. Ataluren is an orally delivered, investigational drug that has the potential to overcome the effects of the nonsense mutation. This study comprises a Phase 3, open-label study of ataluren in participants with nmDBMD who previously received ataluren at an Investigator site in a prior PTC-sponsored clinical study. A separate open-label study (PTC124-GD-016-DMD; NCT01247207) is being conducted for nmDBMD participants who previously received ataluren at an Investigator site in the United States (US).
This is an investigation of the efficacy and safety of CRD007 in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), Becker Muscular Dystrophy (BMD) and symptomatic carriers.
The primary objective of this study is to assess the ongoing efficacy, safety, and tolerability of an additional 212 weeks of treatment with eteplirsen injection in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) subjects who have successfully completed the 28 week eteplirsen study: Study 4658-us-201. This study will also evaluate the correlation between biomarkers for DMD and the clinical status of participating DMD subjects.
This is a multi-center natural history study that will be conducted at participating centers in the Cooperative International Neuromuscular Research Group (CINRG). Following a baseline evaluation, participants will have three follow-up visits over a three-year period. The investigators will characterize the Becker muscular dystrophy phenotype, and correlate specific abnormal dystrophin proteins with the range of clinical outcomes.
Physicians seek a method to assess neuromuscular disease that is both non-invasive and quantifiable. Many patients do not tolerate standard current day assessment tools (such as needle electromyogram), and Electrical Impedance Myography (EIM) has the potential to serve as a non-invasive, quantifiable, diagnostic tool for neuromuscular disease. If successful, these devices will allow for improved ability to diagnose neuromuscular disease and to assess disease progression or remission, allowing for better care of individual patients as well as for use in clinical trials, where improved outcome measures for neuromuscular diseases is being sought.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), the most common muscular dystrophy, leads to skeletal and cardiac muscle damage. Treatment of pulmonary complications has improved survival; however, heart muscle disease or cardiomyopathy has emerged as a leading cause of death, typically by the third decade. Although myocardial changes begin early, clinically significant heart disease is rarely detected in the first decade of life. Consequently, DMD cardiomyopathy frequently goes unrecognized (and untreated) until advanced (and irreversible). Current DMD cardiovascular care guidelines recommend beta-blockers and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) when decreased ejection fraction (EF) is noted by echocardiography (echo); however, this strategy has not significantly improved outcomes. Our team has recently made a breakthrough in a mouse study, showing in a model that causes the same heart muscle disease in humans with DMD adding an old medicine traditionally used for high blood pressure and late-stage heart failure can actually prevent heart muscle damage. Because of this drug's proven safety in both children and adults, it is ready to be studied immediately in an RCT in patients with DMD to hopefully show, as we did in mice, that we can prevent the devastating consequences of heart muscle damage.
The investigators are performing a gene therapy clinical trial in Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD) and sporadic inclusion body myositis (sIBM) patients. Both of these conditions have an important common feature: loss of ability to walk because of weakness of the thigh muscles. The investigators plan to do a gene therapy trial to deliver a gene to muscle called follistatin (FS344) that can build muscle size and strength. If successful, the investigators can increase the size of the thigh muscle and potentially prolong a patient's ability to walk. The gene will be carried into the muscle by a virus called adeno-associated virus (AAV). This virus occurs naturally in muscle and does not cause any human disease, setting the stage for its safe use in a clinical trial. Presently there is no treatment that can reverse Becker muscular dystrophy or sporadic inclusion body myositis. Only supportive care is currently possible. In this study, subjects with either of these diseases will have shots of the follistatin gene injected directly into thigh muscle on one (first cohort) or both legs (2nd and 3rd cohort). One hundred and eighty days following the gene delivery, the muscle will undergo biopsy to look closely at the muscle to see if the muscle fibers are bigger. Between the time of the gene transfer and the muscle biopsy, patients will be carefully monitored for any side effects of the treatment. This will include an MRI of the thigh muscle before treatment and at day 180 following treatment. Blood and urine tests, as well as physical examination will be done on the subjects during the screening visit and on days 0, 1, 2, 7, 14, 30, 60, 90, and 180 to make sure that there are no side effects from the gene injections. Sutures will be removed 2 weeks post-biopsy. Additional blood samples will be collected at 9, 12, 18, and 24 months. Patients will be seen at the end of 1st and 2nd years for a physical exam, assessment of muscle strength and appropriate blood tests.
This is a pilot clinical trial to assess the ability of a new ultrasound-based imaging method, Double-Push Acoustic Radiation Force (DP ARF) ultrasound, to monitor the progression of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The hypothesis being tested is that DP ARF ultrasound delineates changes in muscle composition and function in individual dystrophic muscles, from early through late stages of disease development, that correlate to time to loss of ambulation in patient volunteers.
Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston Neurology Department invite children to participate in a new research study. Researchers are looking for boys ages 2 - 30 with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and healthy boys ages 2 - 30 (without any nerve or muscle concerns) to serve as controls. The study is evaluating a new technique that will test nerve and muscle function. The testing is all pain free. Children participating in the study will come in for 10 visits over two years. Visits will take place every month at first, then less often for the remaining visits. The tests for the study itself take approximately 2hours. If participants are interested or would like to learn more about the study, please call Lavanya Madabusi at 617-919-3554 or Lavanya.Madabusi@childrens.harvard.edu. All inquiries will be kept strictly confidential.