Centre for Neuroscience of Speech, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Division of Translational Genomics of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Germany & Center for Neurology, University Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
Cerebellum. 2024 Jun;23(3):1128-1134. doi: 10.1007/s12311-023-01623-4. Epub 2023 Oct 28.
Dysarthria is a common and debilitating symptom of many neurodegenerative diseases, including those resulting in ataxia. Changes to speech lead to significant reductions in quality of life, impacting the speaker in most daily activities. Recognition of its importance as an objective outcome measure in clinical trials for ataxia is growing. Its viability as an endpoint across the disease spectrum (i.e. pre-symptomatic onwards) means that trials can recruit ambulant individuals and later-stage individuals who are often excluded because of difficulty completing lower limb tasks. Here we discuss the key considerations for speech testing in clinical trials including hardware selection, suitability of tasks and their role in protocols for trials and propose a core set of tasks for speech testing in clinical trials. Test batteries could include forms suitable for remote short, sensitive and easy to use, with norms available in several languages. The use of artificial intelligence also could improve accuracy and automaticity of analytical pipelines in clinic and trials.
构音障碍是许多神经退行性疾病的常见且使人虚弱的症状，包括那些导致共济失调的疾病。言语的变化导致生活质量的显著下降，影响到患者在大多数日常活动中的表现。人们越来越认识到它作为共济失调临床试验中客观结果测量的重要性。它在疾病谱中的可行性（即从症状前开始）意味着试验可以招募能够行走的个体和处于晚期的个体，这些个体常常因为难以完成下肢任务而被排除在外。在这里，我们讨论了临床试验中言语测试的关键考虑因素，包括硬件选择、任务的适用性以及它们在试验方案中的作用，并提出了一套用于临床试验中言语测试的核心任务。测试组合可以包括适合远程使用的简短、敏感且易于使用的形式，并且可以用多种语言提供规范。人工智能的使用也可以提高临床和试验中分析管道的准确性和自动化程度。
