View clinical trials related to Myopathy.
Filter by:Patients who are admitted to the intensive care unit and require mechanical ventilation frequently develop profound respiratory and limb muscle weakness. Studies show that the development of weakness during the ICU stay results in poor outcomes. Currently there are no treatments for this muscle weakness, but it has been suggested that this weakness might improve with physical therapy. Electrical stimulation is a method to provide direct stimulation to the muscles potentially enhancing function and improving strength. The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that neuromuscular electrical stimulation of the quadriceps muscle will improve muscle strength in patients who are critically ill on mechanical ventilation.
Myositis is a disease, believed to be due to immune cells, cells which normally protect the body, but are now attacking the muscles and other organ systems within body. As a result, the affected muscles and organs fail to work properly causing weakness, difficulty swallowing, skin rash, respiratory problems, heart problems, joint stiffness, soft tissue calcification and vasculitis (blood circulation problems). The likelihood of progression of this disease is high. This study is designed to examine whether treating patients with high dose cyclophosphamide (a drug which reduces the function of the immune system) and ATG (a protein that kills the immune cells that are thought to be causing this disease), followed by return of previously collected blood stem cells will stop the progression of myositis.