Electrophysiological and Imaging Biomarkers to Evaluate Exercise Training in Patients with Neuromuscular Disease: A Systematic Review

Lisa Pomp, Jeroen Antonius Lodewijk Jeneson, W Ludo van der Pol, Bart Bartels

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

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Abstract

Exercise therapy as part of the clinical management of patients with neuromuscular diseases (NMDs) is complicated by the limited insights into its efficacy. There is an urgent need for sensitive and non-invasive quantitative muscle biomarkers to monitor the effects of exercise training. Therefore, the objective of this systematic review was to critically appraise and summarize the current evidence for the sensitivity of quantitative, non-invasive biomarkers, based on imaging and electrophysiological techniques, for measuring the effects of physical exercise training. We identified a wide variety of biomarkers, including imaging techniques, i.e., magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound, surface electromyography (sEMG), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Imaging biomarkers, such as muscle maximum area and muscle thickness, and EMG biomarkers, such as compound muscle action potential (CMAP) amplitude, detected significant changes in muscle morphology and neural adaptations following resistance training. MRS and NIRS biomarkers, such as initial phosphocreatine recovery rate (V), mitochondrial capacity (Q max), adenosine phosphate recovery half-time (ADP t 1/2), and micromolar changes in deoxygenated hemoglobin and myoglobin concentrations (Δ[deoxy(Hb + Mb)]), detected significant adaptations in oxidative metabolism after endurance training. We also identified biomarkers whose clinical relevance has not yet been assessed due to lack of sufficient study.

Original languageEnglish
Article number6834
Pages (from-to)1-15
JournalJournal of Clinical medicine
Volume12
Issue number21
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2023

Keywords

  • EMG
  • MRI
  • MRS
  • NIRS
  • biomarkers
  • exercise training
  • imaging
  • neuromuscular diseases
  • systematic review
  • ultrasound

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