German researchers have applied a technology designed to explore, non-invasively, patients suffering from proximal spinal muscular atrophy linked to the SMN1 gene (SMA) and benefiting from innovative therapies: opto-acoustic imaging is a non-invasive technique which enables variations in signal at the level of muscle tissue to be measured in three dimensions, depending on its trophicity :
- 10 SMA patients (2 type I, 4 type II, 4 type IIII; average age 9 years, 5 treated with nusinersen) were included in the study and compared with 10 subjects free of the disease,
- the data obtained by this imaging device proved to be correlated with changes in the functional scores used in SMA, whether with or without innovative treatment.
This tool, already on the market and used in other indications, could be a complement to, or even a substitute for, other functional assessments, particularly in the context of neonatal screening for SMA, where it is sometimes difficult to confirm that a patient is pre-symptomatic.
