[The study of chronic partial denervation and quality of life in patients with motor neuron disease treated with semax]

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Semax and ACTH (Corticotropin).

The needle electromyography (EMG) was performed thrice with short-term 2 month interval (60 days before enrollment and on day 1 and day 48 of the study) in three muscles on bulbar, cervical and lumbosacral levels on the less affected side.

According to Revised El-Escorial Criteria (1998) the needle EMG for diagnostic purposes was also performed in two muscles on the cervical and lumbosacral levels on the more affected side along with stimulation electroneuronmyography of motor and sensory fibers of the peripheral nerves of neck, upper and lower extremities.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 27 patients taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Sixty days before enrollment, and on days 1, 10, 24, 34 and 48, patients were assessed by the Norris ALS, the ALS Functioning Rating Scale and the ALSAQ-40 quality of life in the ALS scale.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and open-label study.

Because people in this Semax study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Everyone knew when Semax was being given (open label), which is simpler to run but leaves more room for expectations to affect what is reported.

What Was Measured

The needle electromyography (EMG) was performed thrice with short-term 2 month interval (60 days before enrollment and on day 1 and day 48 of the study) in three muscles on bulbar, cervical and lumbosacral levels on the less affected side.

According to Revised El-Escorial Criteria (1998) the needle EMG for diagnostic purposes was also performed in two muscles on the cervical and lumbosacral levels on the more affected side along with stimulation electroneuronmyography of motor and sensory fibers of the peripheral nerves of neck, upper and lower extremities.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Adrenocorticotropic Hormone, Chronic Disease, Electromyography, Motor Neuron Disease, Muscle, Skeletal, Neprilysin and Nerve Regeneration.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and open-label study of Semax and ACTH (Corticotropin) in 27 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The publication is from 2007 (Zhurnal nevrologii i psikhiatrii imeni S.S. Korsakova), a journal based in Russia (Federation).

More context: the Semax compound page and the ACTH (Corticotropin) compound page, all human trials.