Upper limb strength and function changes during a one-year follow-up in non-ambulant patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: an observational multicenter trial.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Upper limb evaluation of patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is crucially important to evaluations of efficacy of new treatments in non-ambulant patients. In patients who have lost ambulation, there are few validated and informative outcome measures. In addition, longitudinal data demonstrating sensitivity to clinical evolution of outcome measures over short-term periods are lacking.

Patients and methods

We report here the results of a one-year multicenter study using specifically designed tools to assess grip, pinch strength, and hand function in wheelchair-bound patients. Our study assessed 53 non-ambulant patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy aged 17.1 ± 4.8 years (range: 9 - 28.1 years). The average Brooke functional score of these patients was 4.6

SUBMITTER: Seferian AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4314080 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature