Challenge
Cerebral palsy, the most common physical disability in children, affects ~34,000 Australians. It impacts movement and posture, often leading to muscle weakness and stiffening. Previous studies have typically only examined muscle groups collectively – such as the ‘lower leg’ or ‘back’ – but lacked muscle-specific information needed by clinicians, surgeons and patients to guide treatment decisions.
Solution
Over six years, enabled by research-dedicated MRI infrastructure and support from NIF, Dr Bart Bolsterlee and his team conducted 762 scans of 280 children to monitor muscle growth. Through targeted scanning and advanced image analysis, they isolated individual muscles and developed growth charts for each one. The work gave unprecedented knowledge into the impairment of specific muscles, and uncovered other distinctions about growth patterns, growth spurts, and the development differences between bones and muscles.
Impact
The resulting muscle-growth charts answer key questions about muscle development in children with cerebral palsy. They allow clinicians to identify underdeveloped or impaired muscles relative to a child’s age. This globally unique set of data is a now vital collection – researchers, clinicians, orthopaedic surgeons, radiographers and families can begin to make more informed decisions about treatment.
