Iconic Symptoms Of Different Types Of Muscular Dystrophy

Scoliosis

Scoliosis is known to develop in between seventy-five and ninety percent of Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients. Scoliosis that develops in an individual affected by muscular dystrophy tends to progress more rapidly than scoliosis caused by other factors. Lumber and thoracolumbar curves are the most common features seen in individuals who have developed muscular dystrophy-precipitated scoliosis. Scoliosis from muscular dystrophy can also produce thoracic kyphosis, pelvic obliquity, and lumbar hyperlordosis. Many individuals affected by scoliosis caused by muscular dystrophy do not have to undergo surgical procedures when the condition becomes severe due to the modern advances of cardiac and pulmonary drugs. Individuals who develop muscular dystrophy-precipitated scoliosis that requires surgery for treatment have some form of a spinal fusion performed to preserve their cardiopulmonary function.

Get more details on the symptoms linked to various forms of muscular dystrophy now.

Learning Difficulties

Learning difficulties is a term used to describe when an individual is not able to process problems efficiently, making it hard to acquire knowledge, learn skills, read, and write. These learning difficulties may also involve problems with time management, memory, organizational skills, abstract reasoning, and attention span. The relationship between such learning difficulties and muscular dystrophy in an affected individual is not well understood by the medical community, but it is thought to be associated with the mutations in the individual's DNA that cause both muscular dystrophy and abnormal brain function. Certain proteins that are not produced in a muscular dystrophy patient also carry out important functions in the brain tissues, which may produce cognitive impairments and learning difficulties.