muscular+dystrophy

[[image:http://www.humanillnesses.com/original/images/hdc_0001_0002_0_img0181.jpg width="206" height="187"]]
=__Muscular Dystrophy__=

Description of Disorder
Muscular Dystrophy is a genetic disorder which gradually weakens the body's muscles. Muscular Dystrophy (MD) is caused by missing genes which when present make up the proteins needed for muscles to grow. Main symptoms include inability to walk normally, or without pain, to stumble, and to have extreme troubles when walking on toes ("tippy-toes"). On a more anatomical level the patient may have //calf pseudohypertrohy//, which is a condition when the calf muscles are enlarged. There are a nine different forms of MD. Among these are [|Duchenne MD] (the most common and severe, that is only present in males), [|Becker MD], [|Mytonic Dystrophy], [|Limb-Girdle MD], [|Facioscapulohumeral MD],[|Congenital MD], [|Distal MD], [|Emery-Dreifuss MD], and [|Oculopharyngeal MD]. Most forms of Muscular Dystrophy started to be recorded in the mid-19th century. MD can affect really anyone, but it is most common in young boys. Types of MD are also present or become present in adolescents of both sexes, and adults of both sexes. When a doctor is evaluating a patient, and is convinced that the person may have MD, they might perform blood tests to see if there are high levels of //serum creatine kinase//. S//erum creatine kinase// is an enzyme released when muscles are detiorating. They may also perform a muscle biopsy to see how much dystrophin, which is a protein that help muscles keep their shape, is present in the muscle cells.

Effects
When a person is told that they have MD, in any form, they will have to change their lifestyle. In the most common case (Duchenne MD), the patient will be affected at a young age, and the muscles around the waist are what will be affected first. The disease may then carry up to the respiratory muscles, causing breathing problems. In all the other forms of MD, the progression can take less or more time, but it usually always starts out right around the pelvis and moves up towards the head. Myotonic dystrophy, the most common kind of MD found in adults can result in muscle shrinking and mytonia. Mytonia is a condition that when a muscles is contracted, it is very hard to relax. Limb-Girdle MD and Facioscapulohumeral MD both progress rather slowly, and are both found to begin in children from ages 8 to 15. MD can also cause obesity, due to the victims inability to be able to exercise extensively. Other conditions that go along with certain forms of MD include baldness, heart problems, and cataracts.

Treatment/Prognosis
There is really no cure right now for MD. Physical therapy, braces, correctional orthopedic, and wheelchairs can all preserve muscles, but there is really nothing stopping the disease from spreading. When MD affects the respiratory muscles in cases like Duchenne, artificial ventilation systems can be used to sustain children, but the average life span of a Duchenne patient is only 20 years. Less serious forms do not cause pre-mature death but really make living hard to do.Since it is a genetic disease that is carried usually by the male, the disease is passed on through sex, or children. This picture shows how the gene can be passed on. Doctors have been making amazing dicoveries using gene therapy (see [|http://biology.about.com/library/weekly/aa102899.htm).] Muscles that were destroyed in a hamster by Limb-Girdle MD were re-built. A virus called AAV (adeno-associated virus) was injected into the hamster's leg, and after about a month, tests showed a 100% increase of strength in the hamster's leg. With all these new methods of treatment, perhaps a cure fore MD is in the near future!media type="youtube" key="vfeAJxtb-F8"

Discussion Questions
1. If you are a parent, and your child has just been diagnosed with Duchenne MD, knowing he will have a much shorter life, how would you choose for him to be treated?

2. You are a doctor, and you are convinced that your patient has MD. You have any medical equipment you need, so how would you prove the child's illness?

3. Do you think that people with the dominant allele for Muscular Dystrophy should be studied, and at very worst put to death so that noone else in this world will be affected by this disease? Explain. By:Mark & Ari