ClinicalTrials.gg
Active, not recruitingNCT07796776TDP-signaturesUpdated Sep 1, 2026

The Aim of the Study is to Characterize Patients Exhibiting Muscular Atrophy and Weakness Who Require a Muscle Biopsy for Diagnosis (IBM vs Atypical MND), Through an Innovative Technique Which Enables the Evaluation of the Neuromuscular Junction Involvement in Each Condition

An observational study in Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM) and Motor Neuron Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, sponsored by IRCCS San Raffaele. Active, not recruiting at 1 site in Italy. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-01.

Sponsored by IRCCS San Raffaele · Observational

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Study type
Observational
Model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
30
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The aim of the study is to characterize 30 patients exhibiting muscular atrophy and weakness who require a muscle biopsy for diagnosis (suspected inclusion body myopathy vs atypical motor neuron disease), through an innovative technique (a muscle biopsy with Electrostimulation for Enhanced Neuromuscular Junction sampling), to evaluate the involvement of the neuromuscular junction in each disease and to better characterize shared and divergent patterns of TDP-43 pathology within the peripheral nervous system in both disorders.

02

Conditions studied

  • Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM)
  • Motor Neuron Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Keywords

  • tdp-43
03

In context

Myositis, Inclusion Body

65 studies on the registry are indexed under Myositis, Inclusion Body; 10 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 30 is below the median of 81 across 20 observational studies indexed under Myositis, Inclusion Body.

Browse Myositis, Inclusion Body studies →

Lead sponsor

IRCCS San Raffaele is the lead sponsor of 454 studies on the registry; 235 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Sampling method
Non-probability sample

Study population

30 adult patients with a neuromuscular disorder (suspected IBM or in differential diagnosis between IBM and MND)

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Patients exhibiting progressive muscle weakness and atrophy with a classic clinical IBM pattern or with an atypical clinical IBM pattern or with an atypical MND pattern
  • Able to understand and sign the
  • Treated according to standard of care clinical practice

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • to needle EMG or skeletal muscle
  • Psychiatric diseases that may interfere with adherence to the follow-up protocol
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(3)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Contraindication

A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.

Biopsy and archival tissue

A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.

Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.

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Study design

Observational model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
30 participants (estimated)
Patient registry
No

Groups and cohorts

  • Inclusion body myopathy
  • Motor Neuron Disease
06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Diagnostic sensitivity of an integrated clinical, neurophysiological, metabolic and histopathological model in the differential diagnosis between IBM and MND.

    To achieve a diagnostic sensitivity of \>90% for the differential diagnosis between IBM and MND integrating clinical variables (site of onset, scales reflecting disease progression rate, muscle strength), neurophysiological indices (presence and degree of active denervation signs, presence of myopathic or neurogenic motor unit potentials), histopathological parameters (myopathic or neuropathic pattern of disease) and metabolic measures (hyper- vs hypo-metabolism) into a multivariable binary logistic regression model, using the final diagnosis confirmed during longitudinal follow-up as the reference standard.

    Time frame: At the end of the follow-up period (24 months of follow-up)

Secondary outcomes

  1. To evaluate signs of muscle and neuromuscular junction (NMJ) involvement at neuropathological level in each disease

    To investigate disease-specific histological signatures, comparing the pattern of fiber degeneration, the presence of inflammatory infiltrates, the presence of protein aggregation markers (such as pTDP-43) and their localization, the presence of mitochondrial changes (the percentage of age-exceeding number of COX-negative fibers) and the NMJ involvement by evaluating the presynaptic and postsynaptic integrity (quantified as the percentage of synaptophysin and Ach-R clustering, respectively) between IBM and MND (through Fisher's exact test or Mann-Whitney U test, as appropriate) and to evaluate the prognostic role of each histological parameter (through Kaplan-Meier followed by log-rank test and Cox proportional hazards regression).

    Time frame: At the end of the follow-up period (24 months of follow-up)

07

Study locations

1 site
08

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Started Jul 2026 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Jul 2028, 24 months after the start.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Aug 20, 2026
First posted
Sep 1, 2026
StartActual
Jul 1, 2026
Primary completionEst.
Jul 1, 2028
CompletionEst.
Jul 1, 2030
Last update
Sep 1, 2026
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Sep 1, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT07796776
Lead sponsor
IRCCS San Raffaele
Responsible party
Stefano Previtali (Associate Professor of Neurology, IRCCS San Raffaele) — Principal investigator
First posted
Sep 1, 2026
Start date
Jul 1, 2026
Primary completion
Jul 1, 2028 (estimated)
Completion
Jul 1, 2030 (estimated)
Last update
Sep 1, 2026
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in Aug 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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