By: Amber Elizabeth McVaugh Muscular Dystrophy By: Amber Elizabeth McVaugh

What is Muscular Dystrophy? Muscular Dystrophy is a group of genetic diseases in which the muscles that control movement begin to weaken and eventually disappear. There are many different types of this disorder, including some that are conceived at birth and others that appear years upon years later.

Symptoms Some symptoms of Muscular Dystrophy range from faulty signs of clumsiness such as trouble walking, foot drops, and falling with no reason as to why a person would fall. Some other symptoms include delayed development of motor skills, decrease in muscle size and strength, drooling, and ptosis (drooping of the eyelids). A rare symptom that only takes form in certain branches of Muscular Dystrophy is mental retardation.

Diagnosis When the first signs of muscular dystrophy start to become obvious, a physician may perform a physical examination and review personal and family medical history. If a doctor believes that their patient had muscle dystrophy, a muscle biopsy will be needed to confirm the diagnosis. Sometimes, only some simple blood testing is needed but other times, more in-depth tests like electrocardiography and electromyography. Genetic testing may also be needed for certain types of MD.

Muscular Dystrophy is very rare, as only an estimated 1 of 5,000-9,000 males between the ages of five and twenty-four years old are diagnosed with this disorder. It is said that even less females get this disease, which means that mostly males are diagnosed with this. Most of the time, though, if a parent is diagnosed with MD, their child will end up with a form of Muscular Dystrophy. Over 50,000 people have this disease. Prevalence

Treatment No known cure for Muscular Dystrophy exists, but there are certain treatments that can slow the course of the disease. Symptoms of this disorder can often be made lesser by rehabilitative devices, exercise, physical therapy, surgery, and respiratory care. Some medications that has been proven effective in slowing the disease are procainamide, quinine, and phenytoin, and also, corticosteriods. Some corrective surgery is performed to fix problems that MD has caused with the body.

“How many people die from this disorder?” Almost all of who is diagnosed with this disorder is fated to die, especially since there’s no cure at the moment. With Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy specifically, survival beyond 30 years of age is almost seen as impossible. If a person doesn’t die from Muscular Dystrophy, then they’ll die from one of the other diseases that it can cause.

Causes Muscular Dystrophy is genetic, meaning that it does not get passed on through touch or air. Instead, it is inherited when the genes that are in charge of making proteins to protect muscle fibers are defective, leaving the muscle fibers to be easily damaged. Some of these mutations are specific to certain kinds of MD, with differently damaged gene codes. Though most cases are inherited, some are caused by mutations in the mother’s embryo.

Interesting Facts One in every two hundred people are born with, or develop Muscular Dystrophy. One out of every 3,000 children is born with Duchenne MD. Everybody with Muscular Dystrophy ends up in a wheelchair at some point in their life. Obesity is a little known symptom of Muscular Dystrophy.

Works Cited: 1.) www.webmd.com 2.) http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/muscular-dystrophy/overview.html 3.) http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/musculardystrophy/data.html 4.) http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/md/detail_md.htm