Outcome measures
Ways of measuring the disease are important for studying disease progression and assessing the efficacy of drugs in clinical trials. Quality of life can be measured with questionnaires, such as the FSHD Health Index. How the disease affects daily activities can measured with questionnaires, such as the FSHD‐Rasch‐built overall disability scale (FSHD-RODS) or FSHD composite outcome measure (FSHD-COM). Electrical impedance myography is being studied as a way to measure muscle damage. Muscle MRI is useful for assessment of all the muscles in the body. Muscles can be scored based on the degree of fat infiltration. References
External links
World FSHD Alliance: FSHD patient advocacy organizations across the world
list of clinical trials for FSHD, Clinicaltrials.gov. fsh at NIH/UW GeneTests
Freshwater snails: Pila spp., Pomacea canaliculata, Cipangopaludina chinensis, Bellamya aeruginosa and Bellamya quadrata
Slugs: Limax maximus, Limax flavus Deroceras laeve, Deroceras reticulatum, Laevicaulis alte, Sarasinula plebeia, Vaginulus yuxjsjs, Lehmannia valentiana, Phiolomycus bilineatus, Macrochlamys loana, Meghimatium bilineatum and probably other species of slugs.Definitive hosts of A. cantonensis include wild rodents, especially the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) and the black rat (Rattus rattus).Paratenic hosts of A. cantonensis include the predatory land flatworm Platydemus manokwari and the amphibians, Bufo asiaticus, Rana catesbeiana, Rhacophorus leucomystax and Rana limnocharis.In 2004, a captive yellow-tailed black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus funereus) and two free-living tawny frogmouths (Podargus strigoides) suffering neurological symptoms were shown to have the parasite. They were the first avian hosts discovered for the organism. In 2018, in Mallorca two North African hedgehogs with signs of acute neurological disease were found to have A. cantonensis in their brains, one of them with a gravid female. It was the first report of hedgehogs as hosts of Angiostrongylus.The Hawaiʻi Dept. of Health states that fresh water opihi can carry the parasite, as well as other aquatic organisms such as prawns, frogs, and water monitor lizards. House pets may interact with A. cantonensis-carrying animals yet not well studied. Cats are known to carry and spread feline lungworm in rat and snail interactions. Pathogenesis of human angiostrongylosis
The presence of parasitic worms burrowed in the neural tissue of the human central nervous system (CNS) causes complications.