The body's cells don't work properly when a protein is altered or produced in insufficient quantity (or sometimes missing completely). What causes MD?Īll of the muscular dystrophies are inherited and involve a mutation in one of the thousands of genes that program proteins critical to muscle integrity. MD is not contagious and cannot be brought on by injury or activity. Respiratory and cardiac diseases may occur, and some people may develop a swallowing disorder. Some types of MD also affect the heart, gastrointestinal system, endocrine glands, spine, eyes, brain, and other organs. Many individuals eventually lose the ability to walk. All forms of MD grow worse as muscles progressively degenerate and weaken. The word dystrophy is derived from the Greek dys, which means "difficult" or "faulty," and troph, or "nourish." These disorders vary in age of onset, severity, and pattern of affected muscles. Muscular dystrophy (MD) refers to a group of more than 30 genetic diseases that cause progressive weakness and degeneration of skeletal muscles used during voluntary movement. It soon became evident that the disease had more than one form, and that these diseases affected people of either sex and of all ages. In the following decade, French neurologist Guillaume Duchenne gave a comprehensive account of 13 boys with the most common and severe form of the disease (which now carries his name-Duchenne muscular dystrophy). In the 1850s, descriptions of boys who grew progressively weaker, lost the ability to walk, and died at an early age became more prominent in medical journals. At that time the symptoms were thought to be signs of tuberculosis. Six years later, another scientist reported on two brothers who developed generalized weakness, muscle damage, and replacement of damaged muscle tissue with fat and connective tissue. The first historical account of muscular dystrophy appeared in 1830, when Sir Charles Bell wrote an essay about an illness that caused progressive weakness in boys. How are the muscular dystrophies treated? How are the muscular dystrophies diagnosed?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |