Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a severe form of muscular dystrophy and the most common type of muscular dystrophy that commonly affects boys.
Muscle weakness usually starts around the age of four and gets worse quickly.
Muscle loss typically occurs first in the thighs and pelvis, followed by the arms. This can lead to difficulty standing. Most people lose the ability to walk by the age of 12. Affected muscles may appear larger due to increased fat. Scoliosis is also common.
In rare cases, people may also develop a mental disability. Also in rare cases, women who have only one copy of the defective gene may show mild symptoms.
This disorder is an X-linked genetic disorder. About two-thirds of cases are inherited from the person’s mother, while one-third occur due to a new mutation. The cause of the disease is a mutation in the protein gene dystrophin. Dystrophin is important for the maintenance of muscle fiber cell membranes. Mostly, genetic testing can diagnose the disease from birth. People with the disease also have high levels of creatine kinase in their blood.
You can refer to other posts on the site about drugs and efforts to identify treatment and drugs for this disease. Physiotherapy, braces, and corrective surgery may help relieve some of the symptoms. Respiratory assistants may be needed for those with respiratory weakness.
Medications used include steroids to reduce muscle breakdown, anticonvulsants to control seizures and some muscle activity, and immunosuppressive drugs to delay the loss of muscle cell damage.
It affects approximately one in every 3,500 to 6,000 boys at birth. Prior to the identification of the drug as well as the pulmonary and cardiac maintenance equipment, the average life expectancy was 26. However, with excellent care, some have lived to be in their 30s or 40s.
The disease is very rare in girls and occurs almost once every 50,000,000 live births, and it can be said that these cases are also due to errors in experiments.