Muscle ultrasound-derived fasciculation characterisation as a marker of MND progression

We aim to develop a sensitive and pain-free way of monitoring muscle health in MND that will make it easier to diagnose MND earlier. Then, when treatments become available, people can start them before the disease has affected them too much. Improving how sensitively we measure muscle health will also mean fewer people would need to take part in treatment trials, because the effects of the treatment would be spotted more easily. This would make trials faster and cheaper and speed up treatment discovery.

Changes in muscle cause the physical problems in MND. Recording videos of muscles using ultrasound imaging reveals important changes in their health. We have already begun developing software that automatically detects some changes and propose developing this into a tool that will give a simple and easy to interpret readout that would help clinicians to diagnose MND sooner and assess the effects of new MND treatments.