Research and measurement of muscles

A contracture is a disabling symptom of MS and other neurological diseases, yet today’s treatments are not optimal and sometimes outright ineffective. But Dr Phu Hoang, an Australian researcher based at the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute and The George Institute for International Health in Sydney, is working to change this.

Being unable to fully move joints significantly affects daily activities, and often contractures in the arms and legs, if untreated, result in ‘claw-like’ hands and feet.

After receiving an MSRA Incubator Grant for PhD work last year, Dr Hoang has developed the first reliable method to measure changes in human muscle. Without reliable methods there was no way to scientifically research contractures and their treatment. Dr Hoang’s newly developed method now allows the reconstruction of specific properties of a single human muscle.

“Previously, to measure or understand human muscles, a whole muscle group had to be studied,” said Dr Hoang. “But now, with this method, we can observe an individual muscle.”

“And when combined with ultrasonography this method allows us to specifically measure the properties of both muscles and tendons,” said Dr Hoang.

His new measurement is being used and further developed overseas. These results have helped win a further Discovery Grant from the ARC to continue to develop the method and investigate the mechanisms of contractures for MS, spinal cord injury and stroke.

Results using Dr Hoang’s method will be presented at the Australasian Biomechanics conference in Brisbane in November 2009.

“I’m looking to see if an appropriate exercise program can improve contracture in the ankles of people with MS,” says Dr Hoang. “And if it does, then to determine where the effects occur – in the tendon or in the muscle or both. Our measuring method can help answer this question.”