Learning to walk: challenges for spinal muscular atrophy clinical trials.

Spinal Muscular Atrophy: A Short Review Article

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a genetic disorder which affect nervous system and is characterized with progressive distal motor neuron weakness. The survival motor neuron (SMN) protein level reduces in patients with SMA. Two different genes code survival motor neuron protein in human genome. Skeletal and intercostal muscles denervation lead to weakness, hypotony, hyporeflexia, respiratory fa...

Six-minute walk test demonstrates motor fatigue in spinal muscular atrophy.

BACKGROUND In spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), weakness, decreased endurance, and fatigue limit mobility. Scales have been developed to measure function across the wide spectrum of disease severity. However, these scales typically are observer dependent, and scores are based on sums across Likert-scaled items. The Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) is an objective, easily administered, and standardized ...

SMA-EUROPE workshop report: opportunities and challenges in developing clinical trials for spinal muscular atrophy in Europe

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is the most common lethal recessive disease in childhood, and there is currently no effective treatment to halt disease progression. The translation of scientific advances into effective therapies is hampered by major roadblocks in clinical trials, including the complex regulatory environment in Europe, variations in standards of care, patient ascertainment and enr...

O-27: Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis in Prevention of Genetic Diseases -Diagnostic of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA)

Background: Preimplantation genetic diagnosis - PGD is currently an established procedure allowing genetic research of oocyte or embryo before implantation to the uterus. Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a neurodegenerative disorder, being the second most common lethal autosomal recessive disease in Caucasians, after cystic fibrosis. There are three clinically different types of which type I (W...

Assessment of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) for Childhood-onset Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Using Duplex Fluorescent PCR