The natural history of Becker’s muscular dystrophy (BMD) is imperfectly known. In order to assess its evolution and with a view to therapeutic trials, researchers from the Institute of Myology (Paris) studied a cohort of BMD patients using quantitative MRI:
- 28 BMD patients and 19 healthy volunteers were included in the study;
- the extracellular volume fraction (ECV) was chosen as the primary endpoint;
- this was found to correlate with the fat fraction (FF), the Gardner-Medwin scale and the serum cardiac troponin level.
This quantitative and non-invasive approach could be very useful in the design of future therapeutic trials.
