Background
Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy (DCM) is the commonest cause of chronic spinal cord dysfunction worldwide.1 Existing evidence suggests that research on natural history of DCM remains inefficient with main focus being on evaluating surgical techniques and post-op outcomes of DCM patients.2 Natural history of DCM is a priority research theme as established by AO Spine RE-CODE DCM.3 A patient registry is an efficient approach to understand the natural history by systematically collecting patients’ health data in a temporal pattern. Registries provide benchmarks for clinical performance and provide evidence-based good clinical practice.
Aims
1.To describe the natural history of DCM.
2.To describe the influence of age, gender, smoking and BMI on outcome of DCM.
3.To describe the demographics, comorbidities, disease severity, quality of life and prognosis of DCM.
4.To identify and describe the pathways involved in metabolomics and proteomics associated with DCM.
Methodology
The MYNAH (MYelopathy NAtural History) study is a multicenter, prospective, non-interventional, observational cohort study enrolling patients with DCM from 10 participating study sites across Australia.
Inclusion criteria
1)All patients with DCM diagnosed by spine/neurosurgeon from 1st January 2018 onwards
2)Patients recorded with ICD-10 Codes: M50.0+, M50.1, M50.3, M47.1, G99.2 in SESLHD EMR databases
3)Patients who provide informed consent
Exclusion criteria
1)Patients with a cognitive decline or intellectual disability
2)Patients who are unable to or unwilling to provide informed consent
Shotgun proteomics
A global peptide-centered quantification of proteomes in the human plasma conducted by tandem mass spectrometry. High abundant proteins removed followed by trypsin digestion prior to analysis in LC-MS.
Global metabolomics
Polar and non-polar metabolites extracted from human serum samples and metabolites separated using LC and detected using LC-MS.
Conclusion
The MYNAH Registry (Registry ID: ACSQHC-ARCR-258) is listed on the Australian Register of Clinical Registries (the Register). Patient recruitment is active and fifty DCM patients have been recruited from approved study sites across Australia. The MYNAH Registry is Australia’s first patient registry to understand the natural history of DCM and analyses the metabolomics and proteomics holds potential for understanding the various pathways involved and in identifying possible biomarkers for DCM.