Neurophysiological biomarkers for neurodegenerative disorders
The present disclosure provides methods for diagnosing and determining the disease progression of neurodegenerative disorders in patients using neurophysiological biomarkers.
1. A method for monitoring disease progression of a neurodegenerative disorder in a subject, the method comprising:
i) obtaining surface electromyographic (EMG) signal data from a pair of muscles in the subject;
ii) processing the EMG signal data to determine an intermuscular coherence (IMC) value, wherein the IMC value comprises an average IMC magnitude between the activity of a pair of muscles over a frequency range;
iii) repeating steps i-ii over time to obtain more than one IMC value; and
iv) determining a trend in the IMC values,
wherein a decrease in IMC values over time indicates the disease progression of the neurodegenerative disorder in the subject.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the IMC value is measured between a frequency of about 5 Hz and about 80 Hz.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a change metric is calculated from a difference in the IMC values measured over a period of time.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the change metric directly correlates to a severity of the disease progression.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the neurodegenerative disorder is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), spinocerebellar ataxia, fronto-temporal dementia, or primary lateral sclerosis.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pair of muscles includes arm muscles, hand muscles, leg muscles, or respiratory muscles.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the pair of arm muscles is a brachioradialis muscle and biceps muscle.
8. The method of claim 1 further comprising causing a display interface to display a plot representative of the trend in IMC values over time.