GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Duchenne muscular dystrophy research at the University of Florida got a major boost with the award of $7.5 million in National Institutes of Health funding to study the use of magnetic resonance imaging in determining the natural progression of the disease.
UF scientists will assess whether MRI technology can be used as a precise, noninvasive measure of muscle tissue in children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Understanding how the disease affects muscle tissue could help facilitate the testing of new therapies in clinical trials, researchers say.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy affects about one of every 3,500 to 5,000 boys born each year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease causes the muscles that control movement to progressively weaken and lose the ability to regenerate after an injury, eventually replacing critical muscle tissue with fat and collagen. By age 12, many patients need a wheelchair. As the disease advances, the heart and respiratory system are affected and patients often die of cardiorespiratory failure in their 20s.
source: University of Florida
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