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Muscular dystrophy refers to a group of genetic, hereditary muscle diseases that cause progressive muscle weakness.
Muscular dystrophies are characterized by progressive skeletal muscle weakness, defects in muscle proteins, and the death of muscle cells and tissue.
Types of MDNine diseases including Duchenne, Becker, limb girdle, congenital, facioscapulohumeral, myotonic, oculopharyngeal, distal, and Emery-Dreifuss are always classified as muscular dystrophy but there are more than 100 diseases in total with similarities to muscular dystrophy.
Most types of MD are multi-system disorders with manifestations in body systems including the heart, gastrointestinal and nervous systems, endocrine glands, skin, eyes and other organs.
HistoryThe 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. 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. At that time the symptoms were thought to be signs of tuberculosis.
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. 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).
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.
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