Remote home assessment of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Remote home assessment of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a multimodal integrative approach
IRAS ID
296187
Contact name
Chris Shaw
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 30 days
Research summary
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is a neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells causing loss of muscle control. Patients with ALS often die within three years of diagnosis. There is only one available drug for ALS, which offers only a small increase to survival by two to three months. The discovery of new drugs for ALS is difficult due to a lack of objective measures that can be used to track disease progression. Consequently, there is a huge need to discover measures that can reliably track ALS over time, which can then be included in clinical trials to speed up drug discovery.
Muscle twitches are a distinctive characteristic present in all patients with ALS. These muscle twitches can be seen at the surface of the skin and can be detected accurately with electromyography (EMGs). We predict that these muscle twitches will provide a sensitive measure of disease progression.
Due to large dropout rates caused by travelling to and from the hospital, we have built and validated a compact high-density EMG device that sits on the surface of the skin to facilitate repeated assessments from patients’ homes. This small device is a tenth of the cost of current devices and has been demonstrated to safely and effectively record muscle twitches. The EMG will be integrated into a digital remote home monitoring platform called Minder. Minder is an established platform for recording internet-enabled medical devices and sensors from within a patient’s home.
This study aims to establish a home-based digital measure that can track disease progression in patients with ALS. We will recruit 20 patients with ALS from King’s Motor Nerve Clinic. Patients will participate in the study for 12-months and will undergo continuous monitoring through the digital monitoring platform alongside regular EMG recordings.
REC name
West Midlands - Black Country Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/WM/0077
Date of REC Opinion
1 Jul 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion