muscular dystrophy
Sign in to saveAlso known as MD, Muscular dystrophy, MD
diseases that weaken the body's muscles
Key facts
- Other names
- Muscle dysfunction
- Specialty
- Neuromuscular medicine
- Symptoms
- Increasing weakening, breakdown of skeletal muscles , trouble walking
- Duration
- Chronic
- Types
- > 30, including Duchenne muscular dystrophy , Becker muscular dystrophy , facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy , limb–girdle muscular dystrophy , myotonic dystrophy
- Causes
- Genetic ( X-linked recessive , autosomal recessive , or autosomal dominant )
- Diagnostic method
- Genetic testing
- Treatment
- Pharmacotherapy , physical therapy , braces , corrective surgery , assisted ventilation
- Prognosis
- Depends on the particular disorder
via Wikipedia infobox
Research
45,415 papers- Muscular dystrophy.Nurse practitioner forum · 1996
- A Review of Muscular Dystrophies.Anesthesia progress · 2024
- Muscular Dystrophies.Clinics in chest medicine · 2018
- Current Strategies of Muscular Dystrophy Therapeutics: An Overview.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2023
- Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy.Current neurology and neuroscience reports · 2003
via PubMed
~9 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Muscular dystrophy (MD) is a genetically and clinically heterogeneous group of rare neuromuscular diseases that cause progressive weakness and breakdown of skeletal muscles over time. The disorders differ as to which muscles are primarily affected, the degree of weakness, how fast they worsen, and when symptoms begin. Some types are also associated with problems in other organs.
Over 30 different disorders are classified as muscular dystrophies. Of those, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) accounts for approximately 50% of cases and affects males beginning around the age of four. Other relatively common muscular dystrophies include Becker muscular dystrophy, facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, and myotonic dystrophy, whereas limb–girdle muscular dystrophy and congenital muscular dystrophy are themselves groups of several – usually extremely rare – genetic disorders.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “muscular dystrophy” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.