Muscular Dystrophy

Keywords

Muscular dystrophy

Introduction

Muscular dystrophy (MD) may be a group of muscle diseases that leads to increasing weakening and breakdown of skeletal muscles over time. The disorders differ during which muscles are primarily affected, the degree of weakness, how briskly they worsen, and when symptoms begin. Many people will eventually become unable to steer .Some types also are related to problems in other organs.

The dystrophy group contains thirty different genetic disorders that are usually classified into nine main categories or types. The most common type is Duchenne dystrophy (DMD), which usually affects males beginning round the age of 4. Other types include Becker dystrophy, facioscapulo humeral dystrophy, limb-girdle dystrophy and myotonic muscular dystrophy. They are thanks to mutations in genes that are involved in making muscle proteins. This can occur due to either inheriting the defect from one's parents or the mutation occurring during early development. Disorders could also be X-linked recessive, autosomal recessive or autosomal dominant. Diagnosis often involves blood tests and genetic testing.

There is no cure for muscular dystrophy. Physical therapy, braces and corrective surgery may help with some symptoms. Assisted ventilation could also be required in those with weakness of breathing muscles. Medications used include steroids to slow muscle degeneration, anticonvulsants to regulate seizures and a few muscle activity, and immunosuppressant’s to delay damage to dying muscle cells. Outcomes depend upon the precise sort of disorder.

Duchenne dystrophy, which represents about half all cases of dystrophy, affects about one in 5,000 males at birth. Muscular dystrophy was first described within the 1830s by Charles Bell. The word "dystrophy" is from the Greek dys, meaning "difficult" and troph meaning "nourish". Gene therapy, as a treatment, is in the early stages of study in humans.

Signs and Symptoms

• Poor balance

• Scoliosis

• Cardiomyopathy

• Muscle spasms

• Gowers' sign

Cause

These conditions are generally inherited, and therefore the different muscular dystrophies follow various inheritance patterns. Muscular dystrophy are often inherited by individuals as an X-linked disorder, a recessive or dominant disorder. Furthermore, it can be a spontaneous mutation which means errors in the replication of DNA and spontaneous lesions. Spontaneous lesions are thanks to natural damage to DNA, where the foremost common is depurination and deamination.

Dystrophin protein is found in muscle cell membrane; its helical nature allows it to act sort of a spring or shock. Dystrophin links actin within the cytoskeleton and dystroglycans of the muscle fiber cell wall, referred to as the sarcolemma (extracellular). In addition to mechanical stabilization, dystrophin also regulates calcium levels. The gene for dystrophin is found on the X chromosome. In males, the lone X chromosome has only one dystrophin gene. If there is a mutation therein gene, a male's muscles will lack dystrophin and slowly degenerate; mutations within the gene for dystrophin were identified because the explanation for DMD by MDA researchers in 1986. A female almost always has two dystrophin genes, one on each X chromosome, and, even if one of these isn't working, the other gene suffices to keep dystrophin levels high enough to preserve muscle function in both the guts and skeletal muscles. Nevertheless, research has shown that a little minority of females having both a working and a nonworking dystrophin gene can exhibit symptoms of DMD. Recent studies on the interaction of proteins with mis-sense mutations and its neighbors showed high degree of rigidity associated with central hub proteins involved in protein binding and flexible sub networks having molecular functions involved with calcium.

Diagnosis

The diagnosis of dystrophy is predicated on the results of muscle biopsy, increased creatine phosphokinase (CpK3), electromyography, and genetic testing. A physical examination and therefore the patient's medical record will help the doctor determine the sort of dystrophy . Specific muscle groups are suffering from differing types of dystrophy .

Other tests which will be done are chest X-ray, echocardiogram, CT scan, and resonance image scan, which via a magnetic flux can produce images whose detail helps diagnose dystrophy. Quality of life can be measured using specific questionnaires.