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muscular dystrophy
 
Muscular dystrophy (MD) is a group of inherited muscle diseases in which muscle fibers are unusually susceptible to damage. Muscles become progressively weaker and as the disease progresses, fat and connective tissue often replace muscle fibers. Some types of muscular dystrophy affect heart muscles, other involuntary muscles and other organs.
 
Symptoms
Symptoms may include:
  • muscle weakness
  • lack of coordination
  • progressive crippling that results in fixations of the muscles around the joints
  • loss of mobility
 
Causes
Muscular dystrophy is a general term for a group of inherited diseases involving a defective gene. Each form of muscular dystrophy is caused by a genetic mutation that is particular to that type of the disease. The most common types of muscular dystrophy appear to be due to a genetic deficiency of the muscle protein dystrophin.

 
Treatments
Treatment may include:

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Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton Hamilton. Phone: 609-586-7900 Physician Referral: 609-584-5900.

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