Exercise training in patients with muscle diseases

Workshop organisors:

The ENMC hosted a patient representative and a group of experts from various disciplines (neurology, physiotherapy, genetics, rehabilitation medicine, orthopaedics) for a discussion on Exercise training in patients with muscle diseases.

This was the first of a series of practical care workshop of the ENMC aiming at topics relevant for daily clinical practice and management of the patient. The workshop had the following objectives: 1) to state the available evidence for effects of training on muscle diseases, 2) to identify areas (disease/types of training) in which studies are underway or needed, 3)  to agree on a core set of assessment markers for evaluation of treatment responses to training, and 4) to plan studies on training, both in individual centres and as multicentre studies. The workshop was attended by 20 participants from 7 countries (Denmark, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Slovenia, United Kingdom and U.S.A.)

Exercise has a tremendous effect on health in man. The effect of training patients with diseased muscle, on the other hand, has been considered more questionable.  In recent years, however,  a growing number of studies  have shown that exercise is in fact beneficial for many muscle diseases. This opinion was also agreed on by the workshop members. In addition, agreement was reached on outcome measures to assess the effect of training, and on the neuromuscular diseases in which the effect of training should preferably be investigated. Plans were made to collaborate on future aerobic exercise training trials in specific diseases.

This workshop was organized by Prof. J. Vissing and Prof. B. van Engelen  and held in Naarden in June 2008.
A full report is published in Neuromuscular Disorders (pdf)