Canadian researchers have developed a whole-body magnetic resonance imaging protocol to aid diagnosis and study the natural history of the disease in ten patients with oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD):
- data obtained by quantitative and semi-quantitative methods were compared with those of ten patients with other muscular dystrophies and five subjects without the disease,
- the degree of fatty infiltration of the lingual muscle appeared to be the best indicator of the progression of the disease and correlated very well with the intensity of swallowing disorders.
These quantitative data will facilitate the development of assessment protocols for future therapeutic trials.
