Creating a better MRI scan to test new treatments for FSHD

Right now, there are no approved treatments for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). But scientists are working on new treatments that might slow down or stop the muscle damage caused by the condition.

To find out if these treatments work, researchers run clinical trials. These trials need a good way to measure muscle damage. Without it, it’s hard to tell if a treatment is helping.

MRI scans can help. They take detailed pictures of the inside of the body and can show muscle damage by spotting changes in fat and water inside the muscles. But current scans can be slow, uncomfortable, or not accurate enough. A better scan would help scientists see more clearly if a treatment is working.

Dr Kieren Hollingsworth and his team are working to develop a new kind of MRI scan – one that’s faster, more comfortable, and more precise.

The project will:

1. Create a new MRI scan that works well in hospitals. It will scan the legs, torso, and arms, and include features that help automatically analyse the scan. This will help researchers spot signs of muscle damage quicker.

2. Test the scan on people without the condition to learn what muscle looks like. This will help ensure the scan picks up changes that are linked to FSHD.

3. Test the scan on people with FSHD and compare it with the MRI scans doctors currently use. This will show if the new scan can spot small but important changes in muscle damage that the currents ones can’t and whether it could be used in future trials.

Clinical trials are essential for finding new treatments. But to work well, trials need accurate ways to measure whether a treatment is working.

In the future, this new MRI scan could:

• Measure muscle damage more clearly
• Help researchers test new treatments more easily
• Make trials faster
• Make results easier to understand

And because other muscle wasting condition cause similar damage to muscles, the scan could also help researchers test and find new treatments for many other conditions – not just FSHD.