MSOT as Non-invasive Biomarker for Diagnosis and Monitoring of Neuromuscular Diseases

The goal of this study is to learn if Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomographs (MSOT) works to diagnose and follow the course of neuromuscular diseases (NMDs) in children. MSOT scans will be obtained from muscle region to measure hemo/myoglobin, collagen and lipid content/signal and oxygenation in patients with neuromuscular diseases. No additional research activities -other than MSOT - will be done during this study. Existing clinical, laboratory and imaging data from standard-of-care procedures will be correlated with the MSOT data. The expected total duration of the study is approximately 36 months. Repeated measurements will be done to evaluate disease progression and the value of MSOT in NMD.