Novel Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy for Neurological disorders
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Novel Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy for Neurological disorders
IRAS ID
258684
Contact name
James Alix
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
STH number, STH19904
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 28 days
Research summary
Research Summary\nNeurological disorders often cause weakness of various muscles in body. This can be the arms or legs, or muscles around the face like the tongue. Some of these conditions are due to a main problem in the muscle structure, but many are due to problems elsewhere in the body. For example, Stroke is a disease of the brain, but it is known that there are changes to muscle after a stroke which may affect recovery. \n\nAssessment of muscle health is therefore important in the diagnosis of neurological diseases and also in monitoring how they change over time. Despite this, the way in which muscle health is assessed is quite variable and often restricted to, for example, painful procedures, or by the clinician asking the patient to move the muscle and then judging the movement.\n\nWe have developed a quick, simple, painless way of assessing muscle health using electrical impedance spectroscopy. In this, tiny electrical pulses, that cannot be felt are used to build up an understanding of the structure of the muscle. \n\nWe have constructed a new device which we will test on patients with different conditions that affect muscle and that experts in these conditions, think would benefit from simple test to evaluate muscle. We will test our technology on healthy volunteers, patients with Motor Neurone Disease (MND), conditions that appear like MND (“mimics“), age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia) and Stroke. \n\nWe will compare the recordings from the new device against routine ways of assessing these patients. We will also undertake recordings over time to understand how our readings change. We will collect patient feedback on the device and recording procedure.\n\nThe study will enable us to understand how well the device works across conditions which could benefit from such technology. This will enable us to plan more detailed studies in the future. \n\nSummary of Results\nIn this project we tested a new device to assess muscle health. It attempted to do this by passing a very small electrical current through different muscles in the arm and leg. The idea was that as muscles change in different diseases, the way in which the electrical current moved through the muscle would also change.\n\nWe assessed the device in patients with a range of conditions, such as motor neurone disease and stroke.\n\nOnce we had recruited around 100 patients we began to look at the results. When we did this we were not sure if there was any ’muscle’ in the signal, it appeared that the signal changes could all be explained by the fat under the skin. In order to try and understand this we decided to undertake some experiments in a laboratory using the device on muscle samples and electrical circuits. Doing this rendered the device no longer suitable for use in patients, but we felt that it was important to understand if the device was working. We therefore ended the study early, having recruited 127 patients out of a target of 175.\n\nWe think that these laboratory studies have shown that there is some muscle in the signal, but that it is small.\n
REC name
Wales REC 5
REC reference
19/WA/0101
Date of REC Opinion
27 Mar 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion