exercise-training-in-patients

Exercise training in patients with Mitochondrial disease: Assessing the benefits

Background

Mitochondrial myopathies are an important group of muscle diseases. They are associated with muscle weakness, pain and fatigue. At present, treatment options are limited.

Exercise therapy has shown some benefit in these patients. We wish to explore this further in terms of both strength and endurance.

Primary objective

To show that strength exercise training is effective in some patients with mitochondrial myopathy, specifically those with sporadic mutations in mitochondrial DNA.

Based on our previous research studies, we believe that such training will improve:

• muscle strength
• mitochondrial function
• exercise tolerance
• and overall quality of life

Participants are expected to commit to an exercise training and testing over a period of 4 to 8 months.

Recruitment

Patients aged 18-65 years who have had a previous muscle biopsy showing a defect in skeletal muscle mitochondrial DNA.

The defect can be either sporadic point mutation or single large-scale deletion.