German researchers have developed a new tool intended to visualise and measure muscle loss in patients with SMN1-gene proximal spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) is a non-invasive technique requiring a probe that is moved opposite different muscle mass. This technique was tested among 10 healthy volunteers and 10 patients with the different types of SMA, and helped:
- to quantify fairly precisely the degree of muscular atrophy;
- especially at the reference point corresponding to the haemoglobin signal (SWL 800 nanometres);
- to visualise differences between SMA subtypes;
- and to establish correlations between this measure and other functional scores used in SMA, in treated or untreated subjects.
